There's A First Time For Everything
by Armbar Nation
Summary: Triple H has hired Ronda Rousey as the first ever female referee in WWE history, and placed her into a storyline with Seth Rollins. When they begin an off-screen relationship, Seth learns that Ronda is struggling to deal with personal issues. Can he help her get past them and move on with her life? *Seth/Ronda story 1 of 11*
1. Chapter 1

"Hunter, who is this?" Stephanie McMahon asked her husband, looking up from her script. They were in the back of a of luxurious SUV with blacked out windows, heading towards the arena where Raw was being held that night.

"Who is who?" Hunter mumbled, not diverting his attention away from the text message that he was writing on his phone.

"It says here I have a backstage segment to do with a Ronda... How do I even say that surname? Anyway I've never heard of her."

"Ronda Rousey," Hunter clarified. He looked up at his wife, taking an interest in the conversation. "She's my surprise for you tonight. She's our new referee. Yes, I actually have been listening to all of your badgering when you thought I was ignoring you, and we now have ourselves a female referee."

"Oh," Stephanie breathed with a surprised smile. "I had no idea that you were working on it." She returned her attention to the script, now reading it with more interest. "Why have I not heard about this? How have I not seen her on NXT or something? You're just having her show up on Raw, and according to this she's going to be shown with me welcoming her? Why would my character welcome a 'lowly' referee to the company? Why would she even care?"

"You haven't heard about it because if you had, it wouldn't be a surprise, would it?" Hunter asked reasonably. "And you haven't seen her on NXT because she hasn't refereed a televised match with NXT. I had a group of five women try out with a few practice matches down in Florida. I assigned Ronda to a few smaller NXT shows and she impressed me so much that I have no doubts about putting her onto Raw and Smackdown already. She won a bronze medal in Judo at the Beijing Olympics, and she's built better than any of the guys who referee for us, as well as being a lot more athletic. She's got a real authoritative presence in the ring. I know this might sound a bit strange to you as you've only wrestled a handful of times, but she's also got one of the best counts I've ever seen."

"One of the best counts?" Stephanie asked in confusion, glancing up at him momentarily.

"That's right," Hunter nodded. "Some of the guys are great at calling a match, but their counts don't look good, especially their near fall count. People who really know what they're looking at can tell when it's going to be a near fall just by the way the ref counts. Mike Chioda has the best count of the guys we have right now, but I think Ronda might even be better. She gets her arm real high but yet she counts quite fast and how she stops her hand hitting the mat on a near fall even I don't know. It looks great. Anyway, when I checked out what she's been doing in the Indies, everyone I spoke to couldn't speak highly enough of her, and recommended that I should give her a shot."

Stephanie laughed. "And this is coming from the guy who laughed at my idea to get a female referee. Your tune sure has changed. You'll be putting Renee on commentary next."

"No, I won't," Hunter said firmly. "And I laughed at you because I thought the idea seemed stupid at the time. I'm willing to admit that I was wrong. You'll see why when you meet Ronda, trust me."

With that he went back to composing his text message and Stephanie carried on reading her script for a couple of minutes, before once again distracting her husband, who had now moved on to reading some emails. "Hunter?"

"What?"

"Why is Ronda going to be in a storyline? Putting a referee in a storyline, and making her look bad, too? That's not what I want; you need to change that. The first ever female referee and you want to make her look bad? What kind of message is that to send?"

Hunter sighed. He had known those questions were coming. "I'm not making her look bad at her job," he clarified. "I'm making her look like she might be in the pockets of The Authority. First, she's seen with you welcoming her with a hug, as you can see in your script. Then she 'somehow' keeps getting assigned to Rollins' matches and her slightly suspect calls just 'happen' to favour him. It's an interesting angle. You wanted the first female referee to be a big deal, this way she will be. What do you want me to do, put a headline on the website saying 'Breaking: Referee does her job?' In any event, she's got a tag match to ref second on the card tonight, before anything storyline related happens. I'm sure she'll do a good job in that."

For a minute or two Stephanie looked sour, but when she realised that Paul's attention was on his phone and not on her mood, she gave up. "Fine, but at the end of this thing we need to make it clear that she wasn't doing anything wrong. Okay?"

"Hmmmm," Hunter mumbled, figuring that was non-committal enough for his purposes. The truth was that he hadn't made a decision yet with regard to what the end of the Ronda - Seth angle was going to be.

Sighing inwardly, he looked forward to the inevitability of having a very similar discussion with his father in law when they arrived at the arena.

* * *

As Hunter had predicted the conversation with Vince had gone along very similar lines to the earlier one with Stephanie, although Vince had warmed to the storyline aspect of it more than Stephanie had. It made him smile to see how remarkably alike Stephanie and her father were at times. At least the conversation had been one on one, without Stephanie being in Hunter's office to chirp in on her father's side of the discussion and make things worse, from Hunter's point of view.

The conversation was almost over when someone knocked on the door, opening it as they did so. Vince turned around to see an attractive blonde woman entered the room. She was wearing a black dress and heels. The outfit revealed an incredible physique; her arms and legs especially stood out due to how muscular they were. He quickly realised that this woman was in better shape than most, probably all, of the divas currently on the roster. Vince had always been one to push big, powerful guys and for this reason he took an immediate interested in this powerful-looking woman who Paul greeted as Ronda, confirming what he had already figured out. This was the new referee.

"Hey, Hunter," she greeted almost as if to a friend rather than her boss, clearly not short of confidence.

"Hi, Ronda," Hunter smiled back. "Vince, this is Ronda Rousey, the new referee I mentioned to you."

"Hello, Ronda," Vince said in his booming voice, as he silently admired his son-in-law's diplomatic introduction. He had avoided letting on to Ronda that she had been the topic of conversation that she had just interrupted with her arrival.

"Good to meet you, Mr McMahon," Ronda smiled as they exchanged a firm handshake. Again, Vince was impressed, not just by the handshake, but by the lack of nervousness in her voice as well. Often, the first encounter he had with someone was awkward because they felt intimidated by him, or nervous at being around the WWE setup. But Ronda seemed like she was taking it all in her stride. Another check mark for her in Vince's book.

"I was told to report here, to you," Ronda said to Hunter.

"That's right," Hunter nodded. "I just have a few basics for you, as you already know the details of the storyline that we're going to start tonight. I'm sure you've read the script you were sent a bunch of times already today, right?"

"Right," Ronda confirmed simply.

"Good. So, there is a referee's locker room, but obviously you can't have you changing in there with the guys, so you're going to be in with the Divas. They know to expect you, and I told them that they need to make sure that someone shows you around and makes you feel at home. I don't know who's going to do that, but one of them will. When you're changed, my advice is get out into the arena and have a look around so that it's not so intimidating later when it's full of people, because trust me, your first time out there, itwill be intimidating."

Ronda nodded to signal that she was listening and would be taking the advise he was offering, not failing to notice that Vince was studying her as he listened to the exchange.

"There will be a few guys out there practicing, there always is," Hunter continued. "Get involved, and try to referee a couple of those practice matches if you can, so that the guys start to get used to seeing you out there. Sadly, it's pretty much inevitable that some of them will make snide or sexist remarks to you here in the back. My advice is, try to ignore it and it will go away, but if it does get to you, you let me know. Okay?"

"It won't get to me," Ronda assured him with a smile. "People can say what they want about me. I don't care."

Hunter smiled. "Good. Go do what I said, then. Later, I'll introduce you to Seth and you can work with him and Ambrose on the finish of the match for tonight. You'll also need to have a quick word with the Usos and Cesaro and Kidd in case there's anything specific they need from you for their tag match. Lastly, you know where I am if you need anything. Feel free to come and see me."

"Thanks, Hunter." Ronda then nodded politely to Vince, "Mr. McMahon." With that she left the room and closed the door behind her.

"Fuck," Vince smiled as he turned back to his son-in-law. "Where did you find her from? She'd kill most of the Divas." Then his expression changed as he realised the implication of that statement. "Don't give her any Divas matches, I don't like the way that would look, with the referee bigger than the ones wrestling the match."

That was another thing that Hunter had anticipated. In fact, he had been so sure about it that he had already told Ronda that she would not be getting any Divas matches. "Way ahead of you dad. I already told her that."

"Good job. Hey, why is she a referee anyway?" Vince asked. "With a body like that she could..."

"Old neck injury," Hunter cut in. "Can't take the bumps."

"Oh, right. This storyline..." Vince's voice trailed off as he seemed deep in thought. Hunter feared that he was about to be ordered to change it, but when Vince spoke again he did so with a smile and a slap on the back.

"Good job. I like it. Make sure Rollins doesn't fuck her around."

"He won't," Hunter assured him, "Seth's a good kid."

* * *

"I'm going to run the ropes for a bit," Seth Rollins informed his two closest friends as he stood up from their table in catering. The Shield may have broken up on-screen, but in reality the three men were very much still brothers. "You two carry on filling your faces," he added with a sarcastic smile.

"Fuck you, bro," Dean Ambrose managed through a mouthful of food as Roman Reigns grinned.

Seth headed out to the arena, intending to either run the ropes by himself or get involved with whoever was practicing if others were already out there. As he walked down the ramp, he saw that the female referee who he was going to be working the new storyline with was in the ring. Ronda. That was the name Hunter had mentioned. For a moment, Seth stared at her, transfixed, before slowly letting out a breath.

"Jesus," he muttered, before approaching the ring to get a better look. Although she was in the middle of a full scale practice match, admonishing Luke Harper for hair pulling with a very stern look on her face, Seth found himself thinking that she looked incredible, even with her blonde air pulled back into a tight bun, and wearing the distinctly unflattering back and white referee shirt and black pants. The shirt revealed very powerful arms. Seth would have been willing to make a bet that the rest of her body was in a similar condition. He was almost spellbound as he stood outside the ring, watching the referee rather than the action.

Harper hit his opponent, Dolph Ziggler, with a big boot to the face. As Seth watched the action unfold, he nodded in recognition at how well this Ronda woman counted the near fall. Aside from the fact that no one ever lost to Harper's big boot, there would have been no way for the crowd to know if Ziggler was going to kick out or not, if this had been a real match. Seth couldn't even figure out how Ronda had managed not to hit the mat with her hand, given how fast it had been coming down.

"Do that again," he called into the ring. "I want to see another of those near falls."

A few moments later Ziggler hit one of his signature moves. As Seth had requested, Harper got his shoulder up at the latest moment possible, yet Seth was still lost on exactly how Ronda's counting technique worked. One thing was for sure though: it had great crowd reaction written all over it. With that in mind, he had just decided how they were going to add the supposed controversy to the end of his match with Dean later in the night.

The angle was that there would be a different reason that he would beat various opponents in his matches over the next, so far unquantified, number of weeks, but they would all involve refereeing by Ronda that may or may not look like she was actively aiding him. For the first of these, he would use the great count that she had by kicking out of Ambrose's finish as late as he possibly could, and having the commentators argue over whether it had actually been a three count or not. Ambrose would argue with Ronda, which would allow Seth to attack from behind, setting him up for the Curb Stomp and the win. If done right and sold properly by the guys on commentary, it would look great.

While he had been running through his idea in his head, the practice match in the ring had ended. Harper had headed for the back, leaving Ziggler and Ronda talking in the ring. Dolph was saying that he was impressed with her work and would not have any problem working with her, although he imagined that some of the guys might.

Seth got into the ring and greeted Ronda with a smile.

"Seth, good to meet you," she said before he had the chance to speak. "I'm Ronda."

"Good to meet you, Ronda," Seth said politely. "I have to say, that count you have looks great."

"Thanks," Ronda said, allowing a hint of a smile. There was something about the genuine warmth that this guy conveyed that she liked. She was sure that there would be more than a fair share of assholes in the back, with bad attitudes towards working with a woman, just like Hunter had said. Fortunately, the guy who she was going to be in a storyline with appeared not to be one of them. It would have been a really awkward start to her career if Seth had decided to be a dick to her, but thankfully it was not the case.

Seth was a good looking guy, too, she decided, the strange blonde streak in his hair not withstanding. Chastising herself for thinking that way, she reminded herself that she couldn't allow herself to think like that about any of the wrestlers. That had to be golden rule number one. This was a place of work for her, not somewhere to get laid.

Ziggler made his excuses and headed for the back, leaving just the two of them in the ring. There was now no opportunity for a practice match, so Seth suggested, "Shall we go in the back? You can meet Dean. I already have an idea for the end of our match. The three of us can talk it over."

"Sure," Ronda agreed easily.

Seth walked over to the ropes and parted them for her to exit the ring.

"Thanks," she said after she climbed though, onto the apron, although the smile that she gave Seth made him think that she found his gesture a little over the top. His instincts told him that - at least while she was working - Ronda didn't want to be treated like a woman in that manner. It was something he would need to remember, he told himself, at the same time wondering why he was so bothered by the first impression he was making on this total stranger, who, when all was said and done, was just a referee. Because she was hot, that was why, he admitted. In its own way her stern faced expression that she used in the ring was crazy hot. It made her look badass, as did her physique. In fact, she looked like she could easily be a wrestler.

"So, how did you get this gig?" he asked as they made their way up the ramp, avoiding some crew members who were working with some cables.

"I've been a referee for a few years in the Indies," Ronda explained. "I heard that WWE were looking for a female ref, so I applied for the try outs. Hunter was there, and I think he was sold the first time he saw me in action, to be honest."

Her confidence impressed Seth. Ronda was good at what she did and knew it - an attitude very similar to his own. It was important to stop short of arrogance, and she seemed to have managed to do so. "Why a referee?" he asked. "I mean, you obviously have a great body. You could..." At the same moment as Ronda looked sternly at him, Seth realised what he'd said, immediately wishing that he had a gun on hand so he could shoot himself in the head.

Even with his slip up, Ronda proceeded to give him an answer as they walked into the busy backstage area. "I fell off a horse years ago and got bad a neck injury. I had to have surgery on it. Now, as far as everyday life is concerned, I'm fine, but I can't take regular bumps on it like you guys do. I wanted to be a wrestler or go into UFC, but now I can't, so here I am. I've learned to accept it, and I'm happy to be doing what I'm doing."

Seth smiled, but he had to voice a concern, "Referees have to take bumps sometimes."

"I can do that, I'm not that fragile. Trust me, they've put me through enough physical tests before signing me up. I just couldn't risk being repeatedly slammed."

The hot-blooded side of Seth was thinking that if he had his way there would come a time when she got repeatedly slammed by him. The more he looked at her and talked to her, the more he found her attractive, both in terms of appearance and personality.

"I need to go to the bathroom before we sit down to go over the match," Ronda said, cutting into his thoughts.

"Sure. Meet us in catering. It's down the next hallway on the right."

"Got it." With that Ronda turned and headed off in the direction of the bathrooms.

A minute later, Seth walked back into catering, finding Dean and Roman still eating.

"Christ, you must have really worked yourself into the ground," Ambrose chirped sarcastically.

"Yeah," Reigns joined in. "That's like, five minutes since you left."

Seth sat back down on the chair that he had vacated minutes before. "I just met Ronda, the new ref. She's fucking hot, dude."

"Fuck's sake," Dean pretended to sigh. "Here he goes. You've only been single for a few weeks and as soon as a woman shows up..."

"She really is hot though," Seth insisted. "She's coming in any minute to go over the match, so you can see for yourselves."

"We'll pass on your compliment to her," Roman grinned.

"Don't you fucking dare," Seth said, laughing nervously.

Dean had his copy of the night's script on the table next to his half empty plate of food. He picked it up and looked at it, shaking his head and muttering under his breath, more in surprise than disrespect. "A fucking female referee."

"There's a first time for everything," Seth pointed out.


	2. Chapter 2

"Your girlfriend stood you up," Roman taunted as he set his empty plate aside and sat back. There was a huge grin on his face.

"Seriously?" Seth moaned. "You're going to start with this? You're really going to start with this?"

"You're the one who walked in here like you saw Nikki Bella with her tits out," Dean said, talking with his mouth full again. "She's hot, dude," he mimicked.

Seth decided to no-sell the ribbing, knowing that reacting would only make things worse. Instead, he just shrugged. "See for yourself when you meet her, but don't come with an attitude. I think she'd kick your ass."

A snort was the only response from Dean, who had now cleared his plate. Roman stood and said his goodbyes, telling them that he had to go work on his match preparations with Big Show.

When Roman left, Seth suggested to Dean that they should head out to see where Ronda had got to. It had been twenty minutes since they had parted ways when she had gone to the bathroom. She had said she was going to come to catering right after she was done, but there had been no sign of her.

The two men had just walked into the hallway when Seth saw Ronda hurriedly approaching them, full of apologies. "Sorry, Seth. I came out of the bathroom and walked right into Cesaro. He dragged me off to work on the tag match. I know I said I'd..."

"Calm down, it's all good," Seth said gently. "Dean, this is Ronda Rousey. Ronda, meet Dean Ambrose."

"Hey," Dean smiled as he shook hands with the female referee that everyone in the back was talking about. Seth certainly had not been lying, the girl was hot, and she was a unit, too. If he had not been with Renee, Seth would have had some competition on this one.

Seth suggested that they find an empty area to sit and go over the ending of the match. Fifteen minutes later, they had it all agreed. Ronda confirmed that she was happy with how to play her part in the ending. She then had to make her excuses because she had a brief segment to film with Stephanie McMahon.

"I like her," Dean admitted once Ronda was out of earshot. "She's got confidence, and she's going to need it with some of these idiots. You know they're going to botch and fuck around in matches on purpose to make her look bad."

"Yeah, I know," Seth admitted with a shake of his head. It was pathetic, but some of the guys really were that petty and backwards in their attitudes. "At least Hunter will be expecting it too. He hired her, so he'll be sure to back her."

Seth was already changed into his ring gear, but Dean was not, so he announced that he was heading back to their locker room. Raw would be going live fairly soon, so the two men agreed to meet back up and watch the tag match which was second on the card from the Gorilla position. It was Ronda's debut, and both men wanted to check it out.

There was a lot more about Ronda that Seth wanted to check out, but he had to make himself focus on business. If the ending of their match sucked it would bury Ronda on her debut, and that would not be good for any of those involved.

* * *

"Here it comes, check this shit out," Seth enthused to Dean. They were standing in Gorilla, watching the tag team match that Ronda was officiating.

Seth knew that Cesaro was setting up Jimmy Uso for his uppercut, which would result in the first close near fall of the match. The crowd had been loud since the start of the show, and were getting into the pleasingly mistake-free contest, so the upcoming pin would give a good indication of the kind of reaction that Ronda's count could get on a near fall. Seth needed it to be good as the finish for later in the night was built around it.

Cesaro nailed the move perfectly. Although he and Kidd were supposed to be the heel team, they were getting cheered, which meant that the crowd popped loudly for the potential winning move.

The art of refereeing a wrestling match was lost on most fans simply because they never gave any thought to it. However, those who were watching in the back who were not blinded by sexism appreciated how quickly Ronda got in position for the count, ready as soon as Cesaro made the cover. As Seth, and indeed Hunter had suspected it got a great reaction, with half of the crowd even fooled into counting three and then groaning as Jimmy got his shoulder up as late as he could.

Ronda indicated two to the timekeeper and then to Cesaro, who unwittingly helped out with the later finish by remaining his knees and complaining that he thought it should have been three. Stern faced, Ronda stood there and would hear none of it.

"Okay, you sold me," Dean admitted. "She's good, and that finish will go over great. Let's go tell Hunter how we want the commentators to sell it, so he can give them the word."

* * *

The Ambrose - Rollins match was not the main event of the night, but the crowd were still into it. Seth and Dean took it to each other both inside the ring and out for over fifteen minutes. The seed had been planted with the fans before the earlier tag match, with a clip with no sound being shown of Ronda and Stephanie sharing a hug backstage. Hunter had made a late decision to leave the audio missing, so that what the two women were actually saying to each other would be a mystery for the fans. At the time, no one in the crowd seemed to have thought much of it, or even paid much attention to the clip.

Ronda had actually gotten a cheer of her own during the match for dragging Dean away from Seth as he was repeatedly stomping the fallen Authority member in the corner. She had then read him the riot act for ignoring her instructions. Ambrose was the face character, but the crowd could not help cheering the no-nonsense refereeing that this new woman was delivering. It was hard for Seth not to smile as he got to his feet, already impressed with how well Ronda worked. Again, the crowd did not seem to suspect anything sinister was going on, even though the distraction caused Seth to get the upper hand for a couple of minutes.

With the end of the time slot for the match approaching, Ronda got the word in her earpiece to call for the finish. "Go home," she told Ambrose quietly as she checked on him as he lay on the canvas.

Dean got up and reversed Seth's next move, going on to work through his signature chain of offence, ultimately leading to the Dirty Deeds finishing move. Dean nailed the move and Seth looked like he was done as he lay flat on his back right in the middle of the ring. Ambrose made the cover, and the count went exactly as planned, drawing an even better reaction than the earlier one in the tag team match had. Almost everyone counted three as Seth's shoulder popped up slightly - not even a real kick out.

At ringside, Michael Cole announced to the world in plain English that he did not like that call at all as Ronda repeatedly motioned that the shoulder had been up to the irate Ambrose, who was stalking her across the ring. The crowd agreed with Dean, booing the call loudly. The venom only increased as Seth attacked from behind, quickly getting the Curb Stomp on Dean, followed by an easy three count.

"It's only her second match so I guess we should give her a break, but I think Ronda Rousey blew that count," Michael Cole announced as Seth celebrated his victory. "I think Ambrose got the three. Rollins got his shoulder up slightly yes, but not before three."

JBL argued the opposite point of view, and with that the segment was in the books.

Seth was the second of the three to get to the back, finding Dean waiting for him. The two hugged briefly, a tradition after any match they had against each other. "Good job, bro," Dean said as Ronda walked through the curtain. Clearly thinking it wasn't appropriate to speak to the two wrestlers, she walked right by their embrace.

"Ronda," Seth called out. The blonde woman turned but did not approach, so Seth walked towards her. "Great job. That was perfect; the reaction was off the charts. You knocked it out of the park." Without even considering it, they embraced each other.

Seth was covered in sweat and dirt from fighting on the outside of the ring, but Ronda still liked how he felt as she hugged him. He felt how a real mad should: hard, tough, powerful. And he seemed like a really nice guy, too. The embrace went on for a half-second longer than it should have, leaving Ronda feeling awkward when they did pull apart.

"I'll leave you to it," Dean quipped as he sauntered away. Apparently they were not the only ones to have noticed the nature of the hug.

"I really enjoyed that," Ronda said in a weak and ill thought out attempt to get the conversation back onto the match.

"What the match or..." Seth let his voice trail off before laughing.

"Seth, I'm sorry I..."

"Relax, I'm joking," Seth said kindly. "First night on the road, huh? What have you got planned?"

"Nothing," Ronda admitted honestly. "Haven't even thought about it." That part was not honest. Her idea had been to try to find out where the other referees were eating dinner and see if she could tag along, even though some of them probably were not too keen on her. A voice in her head told her to avoid wherever this conversation with Seth was heading, but a louder voice told the first to shut the hell up.

No guts, no glory, Seth thought. He had felt an undeniable attraction towards Ronda since first setting eyes on her earlier in the night. Not being the shy and retiring type, he had decided to ask her out to dinner. If nothing else, it would at least let him know if there was a guy already in the picture because if there was, that would be her first response. Given the length of the embrace a moment before, he considered it to be unlikely.

"Dean and Roman filled their faces earlier, but I need to get something to eat when I get out of here," he began confidently. "Join me, if you like?"

Ever since the opportunity to sign for WWE had presented itself, Ronda had told herself to avoid dating one of the wrestlers like the plague, yet here she was on the very first night, about to accept an offer of dinner from one of them. If nothing else she was a woman of instinct, and right now her instincts told her that yes was the answer she should give.

"Sure," she said, playing it cool. "I'll go to dinner with you. Where?"

"There's a nice place not too far away. Let's shower and change, and when the main event is over we can take off right away. I'll drive us over there."

"I have my car too, so I'll have to follow you," Ronda pointed out with a smile.

"Alright," Seth smiled back. As he and Ronda started walking towards the locker room area he said, "I'll meet you in the garage in an hour?"

"Sounds like a plan," Ronda agreed.

A couple of minutes later, Seth walked into the locker room. He was not really surprised to find his two brothers looking at him as if they already suspected he had asked Ronda out. He gave them their answer with a little nod and a wink.

"Nice job, man," Roman said, slapping Seth on the back. Both he and Dean had felt bad when Seth's previous relationship had recently fallen apart. Joking aside, the three men really did always look out for each other, and both Roman and Dean were pleased that Seth had asked Ronda out, and even more pleased that she had accepted. The guy didn't waste any time, that was for sure.


	3. Chapter 3

Seth smiled as he watched Ronda savour the first taste of the wine that he had ordered for her. He knew the restaurant that he had brought her to quite well, and would always eat there when he was in town. Fine food was something that he had always appreciated, and the food here was always top drawer. Apparently the server's recommendation of which wine to try had been equally good.

"That's some real nice wine," Ronda smiled tiredly after the long night at the arena. "Shame I'm limited to one glass by driving; tonight was quite stressful."

"As I said earlier, you did a really good job tonight," Seth smiled back. "The first night is always tough, but you'll soon get into the swing of it. Soon enough it will only be the travelling that bothers you because the rest of this job really is a blast. Relax, order some food and unwind."

A few minutes later they ordered food and then they spent the time whilst waiting for it to be prepared getting to know each other a little, discussing their family backgrounds and where they grew up as children before moving on to talking about how Seth got into the wrestling business. He told her about how he had worked his way up through Ring of Honor to NXT and then onto the main WWE roster. It was not his usual thing to spend so much time talking about himself, but Ronda had been keen with her questions and had seemed to be enjoying listening to his answers and his story, so he went with it.

The break in conversation that was caused by their food arriving gave him the opportunity to finally ask something that had been bugging him all night; he thought that he had heard Ronda's name before somewhere. It had been the first thing he had intended to ask her about when they had met in the parking garage back at the arena, but he had clean forgotten as he had been so taken by how incredible she looked in her short black dress. There was no doubt about it, she was a stunner.

"Hey, I meant to ask earlier," he began after finishing his first mouthful of steak. "I've had the feeling all night that I've heard your name somewhere before?"

Ronda was cutting her chicken breast into pieces and did not look up at him as she answered. "I guess you watched the two thousand eight Olympics. I got bronze for Judo."

"That must be it," Seth considered. "That was before your injury, obviously."

"Yeah," Ronda almost mumbled, now absently pushing her food around her plate with her fork rather than starting to eat it. The memories relating to her injury clearly troubled her, but Seth knew from personal experience that if you let certain things eat away at you like that there was no way to put them behind you and move on. The best policy was to talk about it. Maybe not with an almost total stranger though, he acknowledged. What the hell, he decided, he might as well make an attempt. "Tell me about it. Trust me, it will help."

For the first time in a couple of minutes, Ronda looked across the table at Seth and into his deep brown eyes. As she did so, she wondered what it was about this guy that made her instinctively want to trust him and do what he asked. It was a very alien sensation for her, but there was nothing but warmth in those eyes that looked back at her. There was also a small but encouraging smile on his face that seemed to echo his words: trust me. Her neck injury was the one thing in the world that caused her to experience fear, an emotion that had previously always been foreign to her.

"I don't talk about it, Seth," she said quietly. "I don't even like to think about it."

"But you do think about it, don't you?" Seth asked as gently as he could. "You think about it a lot, I can tell. You need to talk to someone about it. I totally understand if you don't want that person to be me. After all, we only met tonight, but believe me when I tell you, this is not going to go away until you talk about it and let someone help you."

He carried on with his meal, not wanting to put more pressure on Ronda as she ate her food for a couple of minutes because he could tell that she was thinking about what he had said, maybe fighting a battle in her own head. When she made the decision she did not announce it, the story just began to flow from her lips as if it had a mind of its own and was eager to escape.

"I don't know what scared my horse. We were hardly even walking at the time. There was nothing around that I could see that might have frightened him, but something scared him and he reared up. I fell off the back of him and landed right on the top of my head. Although I was stunned for a moment when I hit the ground, I figured that I would be fine because I had my helmet on. But that's when I realised... I'll never forget those few seconds of my life. I've never been so scared, and I never could be again. My legs wouldn't move, and I couldn't feel them. I was paralysed. I lay there on the ground and thought I'd never move my legs again."

Ronda's voice had gotten quieter before trailing off altogether, but Seth knew that now she had trusted him and had gone this far with the story, she needed to continue and let it all out. He reached out and gently took her right hand which had been resting on the table in his left, pleasingly meeting with no resistance and feeling her fingers tighten around his own.

"Don't stop," he urged gently. "Let me guess, it took a couple of minutes for the feeling to start to come back to your legs, right?"

Ronda was surprised; he was exactly right. "Yeah. I just lay there and my mom was talking to me and trying to encourage me to move. We had been out riding together, you see. I told her that I couldn't move, that I had no feeling in my legs. She began to panic because we were out in the countryside and a long way from anywhere. I don't think she knew what to do next, but then the feeling gradually started to come back to my legs. I've never been so relieved in my life, but I'll never forget those minutes lying on that grass. Unless it's you, there's no way to imagine how it feels to think that you're facing the rest of your life in a wheelchair."

"But you got up," Seth pointed out. "You got up and you walked away with your mom's help, right? You got surgery, and you're fine now. Yes, you can't wrestle or go to UFC, but it could have been so much worse. And one I do know is, they come up new surgeries every day. They might come up with something that they can do to fix your neck so than you can compete in the WWE one day."

"I don't want to talk about this anymore, Seth," Ronda said. "I appreciate what you're trying to do. It does feel good in a way to open up, but let's change the subject now, okay?" Saying the words made Ronda feel a little guilty but at least this way she would avoid directly lying to him. The truth of it was that no surgery could possibly help her to recover from the neck injury and compete as a wrestler, because the truth of it was that the problem she had was mental, not physical.

Respecting Ronda's wishes, Seth changed the subject and the mood quickly lightened as they finally got down to eating the amazing food. They shared laughter as Seth dished the dirt on some of his fellow wrestlers, telling her some amusing behind the scenes stories. Ronda knew that she approached life too seriously sometimes, but it was the way that she had always been, and it was the reason that she had made it to the Olympics and won a bronze medal. It was only by being serious, dedicated and committed that it was possible to achieve something like that.

Although Seth had obviously required a similar level of dedication to get to where he was at the top of WWE, he still seemed to have so much fun doing it, she realised. There was a lot that she could learn from this guy and his approach to life and she could enjoy his company while doing so as she had done tonight. It was a pleasant change to meet someone so genuine. Sure, he was a great looking guy but personality was what she looked for the most and Seth's was exactly the kind of personality that she liked; kind but not overbearingly so, with a keen sense of humor, but not to the point of being irritating. Before the meal was over she had already decided that, providing he asked her out again, this would not be the last meal or date they shared.

Seth might not have been the most experienced dater in the world, but he had learned that the best way for both him and the woman of his choosing to have a good time, and ultimately to impress her and have her want to see him again, was to actually not try to impress her. He knew that he was naturally a nice guy and good fun to talk to, so he used his strength for what it was and merely enjoyed the night as himself. If the woman liked him for who he was and wanted to see him again that was great, but if not then it was clearly not to be. That was fine too.

Ronda declined his offer of dessert for the same reason that he didn't want one; diet requirements. Therefore, after Seth insisted on picking the entire check, it was soon time to leave. "I didn't invite you to dinner so that you could pay for it," he had grinned.

The pair walked out into the cool night air of the parking lot, knowing that they now had to part ways, having driven to the restaurant separately in their rental cars. Ronda had decided that she wanted to see Seth again, but she was definitely not going to sleep with him after their first date. She had never slept with someone after a first date before, and she was not going to start now. What she was going to do was give him a taste of her, which would hopefully leave him wanting more. When they reached her rental car, she turned to face her date who once more had that warm smile on his face. She was already falling for that smile after one night.

"Thanks for a lovely evening, Seth, and for the meal. I really enjoyed it."

"My pleasure, it was a good night," Seth said. "Maybe we'll do it again soon?" Seth had naturally hoped to be asked to follow Ronda back to her hotel, but it was apparent that it was not going to happen. Still, there was a smile on her face and a twinkle in her blue eyes, and that was what mattered most. Her face was positively radiant under the lights of the parking lot, telling that her words about enjoying the night had not been said for the sake of being polite.

"Very soon," she said softly, reaching up ever so slightly to kiss him. The kiss lingered for a second longer than it needed to if she simply wanted to wish him goodnight. Ronda allowed a very slight sound that was somewhere between a purr and a moan to escape her as their mouths were joined together. With that, she backed away, wished him goodnight, and got into her car.

Seth's own walk back to his car was not a comfortable one because he had the taste of Ronda on his lips and a huge erection straining against his pants.


	4. Chapter 4

Much as Ronda's kiss had lingered on Seth's lips, it had also lingered in his mind. It was obvious that had been her intention, and from her point of view it had worked like a charm because that night as he lay in bed in his hotel room he could think of nothing else apart from the feeling of Ronda's lips against his own and the small, satisfied purring sound that she had let out either involuntarily or as a further way to tease him. He wanted more of that, a lot more.

Great though his desire was for Ronda, by the time he arrived at the arena for the Smackdown taping the next day he had decided that she was not the only one who could play little mind games. It had been obvious not only from the kiss, but also from the look in her gorgeous blue eyes before she had turned away from him to get into her car that she wanted him as badly as he wanted her. Yet she had decided to tease him. What she obviously wanted was for him to come chasing after her tonight and make the next move, probably to ask her on another date. Instead, he had a game of his own to leave Ronda doing the thinking. It was very simple; his plan was to do nothing.

He was not booked to wrestle on the show, which meant that the storyline with Ronda would not progress until Monday night's Raw episode. The only reason he had showed up for the taping at all was because both Dean and Roman were wrestling, therefore he intended to hang with them in the locker room that they all shared and watch the show from there. There would also presumably be the pleasant distraction of watching Ronda referee a match or two, but as far as she was concerned, what mattered was that he would be in the locker room and she would not see or hear from him all night. The ball would well and truly be back in her court.

"Here he is," Dean greeted Seth when he walked into the locker room that had been assigned to the former Shield members.

"'Sup bro?" Seth greeted as the two men bumped fists. Seth sat down on a steel chair next to Dean's own. There was no sign of Roman, but Dean was watching the pre-show warm up match that was taking place out in the ring on a monitor.

"There's something about that woman, almost makes me jealous of you," Dean said with a smile. It was only then that the camera angle changed and Seth saw that Ronda was refereeing the match between Zack Ryder and R-Truth which was in progress. "So, how did it go last night?" Dean asked eagerly.

"Good," Seth admitted, playing it cool. "Nice food, better company."

"I don't want to hear about the food, dickhead. Did you score or not?"

Seth laughed sarcastically. "You know, sometimes I wonder what Renee sees in you, man."

Dean's response was a devilish grin of his own. "I don't talk like that around Renee, do I? Come on then, details!"

"We had a good night, like I said. I walked Ronda back to her car and we kissed. Then I went back to the hotel."

Dean gestured at the monitor. "You kissed _her_ and then left it at that? I'd have gotten a blow job at the very least."

"Come on dude," Seth sighed, a hint of irritation in his voice now at his friend's attitude.

Dean punched him on the shoulder and laughed. "Lighten up, you tool. I'm playing with you. I'm glad that you had a good night, and that you kissed each other. You're going to see her again?"

"I hope so," Seth nodded, smiling now that he realised Dean had successfully suckered him into the ribbing. "The way she kissed me goodnight, she let it linger just for that extra second to leave me wanting more. She wanted to play with me a little, so I'm playing right back. I'm staying in here all night and avoiding her until Monday."

"Good idea," Dean decided. "Let her stew for a few days, then ask her out again Monday."

"Exactly what I was going to do," Seth agreed. "Hey, I was thinking the whole night last night that I'd heard her name somewhere before. She was at the two thousand eight Olympics and got bronze for judo. The girl is badass, man."

Dean laughed and gestured to the monitor once more. "You don't have to tell me that, it's obvious by looking at her. If this thing takes off with the two of you and you fuck her around, I won't have to kick your ass because she'll do it herself. Anyway, you've learned from last time right?"

Seth's eyes closed briefly at the memory of how his last relationship had ended. "Yes. The next relationship I get into, I'm going to take it seriously. No more of that cheating bullshit."

* * *

"Hey, Hunter. You wanted to see me?" Seth asked as he walked into the boss's office backstage prior to Monday Night Raw. It was never a pleasant feeling to be summoned to see one of the bosses, whether it was Vince, Hunter or even Stephanie, they could all verbally tear you a new asshole when they wanted to. But tonight, Seth could imagine no reason why he might be in trouble, so the reason for the summons had to be something else.

"Just a quick one, Seth," Hunter smiled. "I wanted to say that the finish to your match last week went over really well. I spoke to Ronda earlier and she said that it was your vision, your idea, so good job. I'm not sure how this angle is going to end as yet, but as for tonight, as you've seen in the script, Randy is going to goad you into putting your spot in the triple threat at the Rumble on the line. If he beats you, you lose your spot in the match, but if you beat him, he'll leave WWE for good."

"Yeah, I read that," Seth confirmed, sounding a little puzzled by the idea. "Obviously, with the angle being that Ronda keeps 'helping' me to win, I'm going over. Kind of strange bringing Randy back for a couple of weeks, and then he's gone again, isn't it?"

"He's still got filming to do," Hunter clarified. "And anyway, it will make people go into the match thinking 'There's no way Orton will lose, he just came back'," Paul grinned, making speech signs in the air. "Vince keeps getting on my ass about predictable writing and telling me that it's costing us network subscriptions and stuff, so we're stepping up our game in that regard. Seth, I need to get on, so get together with Orton and Rousey and work out a finish, okay?"

"You got it." Seth headed out of the boss's office to begin his search for Ronda and Randy Orton. As he walked along the hallway, his mind drifted to what he was going to say to Ronda when he spoke to her, concerning another date rather than the storyline. He didn't get very far, as he only made it to the next hallway before seeing Ronda striding towards him wearing her referee attire. Everything about her, even the way she walked, looked so powerful. It was already driving him crazy. This girl was something else, even compared to the rest of the divas, some of whom were both powerful and beautiful themselves.

"Hey Ronda," he greeted her with a big smile. Again, he decided to play it cool and maybe push her buttons a little more. "Have you seen Randy Orton? We need to work on our match."

Ronda could not figure out if this guy was serious or not. What kind of guy asked a girl out on a date, acted like a real gentleman, including not pushing his luck at the end of the night, kissed the girl goodnight with a look of longing in his eyes, and then ignored the girl for a week afterwards, as if pretending that nothing had happened? The truth was that she had no idea, but she was going to find out. At the same time, Seth Rollins was going to find out that she did not like to be ignored by a man who she had been on a date with, especially if they had kissed her.

"Hey, Seth," she greeted him with a smile of her own. It was a disappointment in a way for Seth to see Ronda smile so warmly. The smile was beautiful, but he had been probing for a reaction and had not gotten one. Had she really not been thinking about the date all week, as he had?

"I do know where Randy is actually," Ronda continued as the pair started to walk along the hallway side by side. They passed several closed doors before Ronda stopped, gestured at a door and announced, "He's right in here."

"After you," Seth gestured himself, now quickly rethinking his attitude and gamesmanship, and thinking that gentleman mode might be a better idea after all. Ronda walked inside the locker room and Seth followed. As he entered and closed the door behind him, he did not have time to take in that Randy Orton was nowhere to be seen, or that it was in fact a women's locker room, because Ronda shoved him back against the door and glared up at him.

"What the hell, Seth, huh?" she demanded. "What's your game? You want to just forget Monday night?"

Ronda was so close to Seth and the combination of the aggressive way that she had pushed him against the door left him feeling short of breath. His plan had worked better than he could possibly have hoped for, and Ronda had just served him up a juicy fast ball right over the middle of the plate for him to put away for a home run. In fact, he could do so with only one word.

"No," he said, actually sounding as breathless as he felt. With that, he pulled Ronda to him and kissed her passionately. There was no guarantee that the kiss was what Ronda had wanted or expected, but she moaned in surprise and then allowed his tongue to access her mouth. The taste of her filled his mouth and it was like drinking some kind of magic potion, a potion that made him instantly desperate for sex.

The kiss had taken Ronda by surprise, but it had certainly answered the multitude of questions that had been running through her mind for days. Seth wanted her as badly as she wanted him. Usually, she was not the kind of woman to rush into sex after meeting a guy, but this time she felt differently. She wanted Seth so badly. The smell and taste of him, as well as the feel of his beard against her face, was already causing her to burn with desire for him. "Seth," she gasped in between kisses, wrapping her hands around the back of his neck.

"You're beautiful, Ronda," Seth breathed. "Fuck, you drive me wild."

They shared another passionate kiss for a full minute before Ronda unlinked her hands and moved one of them down and into Seth's leather pants that he wore to the ring. This told her that she did not have much work to do, as once more Seth locked his mouth over her own in another kiss. This time he was the one to moan in pleasure into her mouth.

Someone tried to push the locker room door open that moment, the door handle lowering and raising several times. The door was unlocked, but the fact that Seth was pressed up against it had prevented whoever was there from being able to move it at all.

"Ronda? Are you okay? The door won't open." The voice belonged to Brie Bella.

"Damn it," Ronda whispered as she backed away from Seth. "I'm sharing with the Bellas. Open the door and tell her that we're working on the match."

"We'll continue this later," Seth said quietly as he straightened his T-shirt.

"Yes. Yes we will," Ronda confirmed, her eyes full of lust.

Seth opened the door and allowed Brie to enter. No one in the room found Seth's explanation for the seemingly locked door convincing in the least, but Brie's smile to Ronda let her know that the secret was safe with her. As quickly as they could, Seth and Ronda left the locker room and walked along the empty hallway, laughing like school children who had been caught skipping class.

* * *

Twenty five minutes later, the finish of the match was finalised, which meant that Seth had every reason to feel quite relaxed. There was nothing that he had to do for the next hour before going out on stage during the opening segment and interrupting Randy, who would then goad him into putting his spot in the WWE title match at the Royal Rumble on the line. However, Seth did not feel relaxed. The reason for his uneasiness was actually uneasiness that he had picked up on from someone else.

The first part of the finish of the match was going to be that J &amp; J Security would interfere by distracting Randy when he was lining up an RKO. Ronda would then wind up standing outside of the ropes, on the ring apron, reprimanding J &amp; J for their interference. Seth would be whipped into the ropes where she was standing, knocking her off the apron and into the padded barrier separating the fans from ringside. With the referee down, chaos would ensue, but none of the latter part of the match concerned Seth right now; what concerned him was Ronda's reaction when Orton had voiced his idea and mentioned that she would need to fall from the apron and hit the barrier.

Ronda had agreed to do the spot, but Seth had sensed something in her tone and manner that surprised him; nervousness maybe, or even fright. He had only met Ronda the previous week, but it was plain as day that she was not a woman to show fear easily. Certainly she was not the type to be scared of a simple fall from a ring apron. He realised that it must have been a very subtle sign that he had picked up on, because Randy appeared not to have noticed it.

With the discussion about the match complete, Orton announced that he was heading off to change into his ring gear, which left Seth and Ronda alone in the small meeting room. "You're not comfortable taking that fall from the ring are you?" Seth asked, getting right to the point, as was his customary style. His question was asked sensitively rather than as some kind of accusation of weakness on her part.

"What makes you say that?" Ronda asked evasively.

"The fact that I'm not an idiot," Seth said simply. "I saw how you reacted when Orton mentioned it. He didn't notice it, but I did. If you don't want to do something, you need to speak up. Honestly, though, there's nothing to worry about. There's literally no way you can get hurt taking a small fall like that." As Seth had been speaking he decided to add a further sentence and see what reaction it got. "I think we both know that."

The reaction that Seth got was not one that he had considered. "I'm fine doing it," Ronda said and hurriedly got up from her chair and made to leave, without looking him in the eye, effectively confirming the opposite to the words she had spoken.

Quickly, Seth also rose and spoke before Ronda made it to the door. "Your neck is still injured isn't it?"

Ronda stopped with her hand on the door handle and seemed to tense up.

"You shouldn't be out there if you're not fit to be," Seth said gently. "If you get hurt again it could be really..."

"My neck isn't injured," Ronda cut in although her voice was only just above a mumble. There was a noticeable pause before she spoke again, still with her back to him. "I'm fine. I'm doing the finish that we agreed on, so can we leave it at that?" She finally turned to face Seth, her expression telling him that she would rather be doing anything else in the world than having this conversation. "Please?" she added.

"Sure," Seth said softly, again surprised by her demeanour.

"Thank you. See you out there, I guess," Ronda said distractedly and quickly left the room.

The door clicked closed behind her, leaving Seth not really sure as to what had just happened between them. The impression he had was that as she had stood with her back to him she had been considering letting him in on some kind of personal aspect of her life, but had then shut down instead. It had been a very strange moment, but it had left him certain of one thing: there was more to Ronda's neck injury than she had told him or anyone else in the WWE. She had mentioned that she had passed fitness tests imposed on her by the company before they would commit to hiring her, so he came to the conclusion that her statement had been true; her neck was not injured, yet she was seriously afraid to take any kind of bump.

_Yes, that's it,_ he thought, _physically she's fine but mentally she's struggling. She's afraid that she will get hurt again. I need to try to help her with that somehow, but how? _

There was now something for him to think about during the free hour that he had ahead of him, so he sat back down and put his mind to work.


	5. Chapter 5

After closing the door behind her, Ronda had taken off and virtually ran along the hallway towards the bathrooms. When Orton had suggested the finish of the match, it had immediately made her start to panic about her neck injury. Fielding questions about it from Seth had made it even worse.

When she rushed into the bathroom, she was thankful to see that it was empty. She hurried over to the sinks, ran some cold water and used it to splash her face. After that was done, she found herself staring into the mirror and hating what she saw. Staring back at her was a woman with a pathetic, frightened look on her face.

Slowly, she reached her left hand, which was almost trembling, up and around to the back of her neck. Her fingers needed no guidance to find the small, rough mark on her skin caused by the scar from her surgery. They had done it so many times since the accident that it was now an instinctive thing that happened whenever the injury was on her mind.

Touching the scar had the same effect that it always did; bringing back the memory of her horse rearing up and sending her crashing to the ground, landing on the top of her head. Then there had been the brief feeling of being dazed by the impact, followed by her mind telling her that she was fine. Her helmet was designed to stop impacts like that, so she would not have a head injury. Her next instinct had been to jump up, laugh it off and tell her mother that she was fine. That would put her mind at ease before she got the chance to rush over in a panic, fearing the worst. It was only when she had tried to jump up that the fact that she was seriously injured revealed itself because nothing happened. She had tried to get up, but her legs had not responded in any way at all. Instantly fear had taken control of her as she tried once more to move and again nothing happened.

"Ronda? Are you okay, sweetheart? Come on, up you get." Her mother's face had appeared above her, the older woman smiling nervously and holding out a hand for her to use to help with getting to her feet.

"Mom," Ronda gasped out in panic, "I can't. My legs. I can't move my legs..."

The memories caused the feeling of nausea to become too great, and Ronda emptied the contents her stomach into the sink in front of her in two heaves. Tears stung her eyes as she washed the mess away as best she could, before cupping some water in her hands and drinking it to wash away the putrid taste of her vomit. Again, she splashed water onto her face as her mind raced. What if she hit the ringside barrier later in the night and her neck got injured? Everyone would be keen to tell her that the odds of that happening were billions to one, as close to impossible as you could imagine, but that did not mean that it actually was impossible.

"God damn it," she cried out in frustration and anger at herself. This was hell. No one would understand how she felt, so what was the point in talking about it? A few minutes before, she had only just managed to catch herself before she started blabbing to Seth about it, but what would that have achieved aside from making the guy think she was both a weirdo and not fit to do the job that she been appointed to do? And all of this was without anyone knowing what the real results had been of her final scan during rehab. That was her most closely guarded secret.

The doctor's voice came into her mind as clearly as if she was still sitting in his office. "Well Ronda," the old guy had said softly, "I've looked over your scans..."

"Hey!" Summer Rae's loud, cheerful greeting as she walked into the bathroom made Ronda almost jump out of her skin. "Oh, sorry, didn't mean to startle you."

"No, my fault. I was day dreaming or something," Ronda mumbled as she hurried out of the bathroom, keen to avoid anyone else asking if she was okay.

* * *

Trying to figure out what the deal was with Ronda was proving to be hard for Seth. After she had hurriedly left the room, he had sat there for over half an hour running things over in his head, making little progress. With a sigh, he stood up and left the room. There was nothing else for it, he was going to have to discuss this with his two brothers. At least he could rely on Dean and Roman to keep his confidence and not go around talking about Ronda's personal affairs. A couple of minutes later, he pushed the door of the locker room that the three brothers were sharing open and walked in. Both of the men whose advice he was seeking were there, but Roman was on his cell phone. By the sound of his end of the conversation, he was talking to his wife.

"I thought you'd fucked off home," Dean greeted him sarcastically as he pulled on the jeans that formed part of his ring attire.

"I was going over the match with Orton and Ronda," Seth revealed, not rising to the obvious bait. "Listen, when Roman's done on there I need to talk to you guys about something."

"It's okay," Dean smirked. "Dating a woman who's meaner looking than you are is nothing to feel ashamed of. No one thinks..."

"I'm serious, man," Seth cut into the banter. "Can we sit down for a few minutes?"

There was a time for ribbing, actually there was a lot of time for that where the three Shield brothers were concerned, but equally when one of them had a problem they would be there for each other and it now became clear to Dean that this was one of those moments. Seth had that look on his face; the look that said his mind was dwelling on something. Seth was the the thinker of the group. At times that was a good thing, at other's it could be a pain in the ass when things played on his mind for way too long. Lately it had been happening more often, and it was beginning to be a concern that the pressure of being one of the main men in the WWE was getting to him a little. Of course the fact that the idiot had screwed up his previous relationship by cheating had not helped.

"What's up?" Dean asked, his tone now devoid of sarcasm as he sat down beside Seth.

The younger man gestured towards Roman. "Let's wait for Roman."

Seeing that something a little out of the ordinary was going on in the room, Roman finished his call as soon as he could without being rude to his wife. "What's up bro?" he asked Seth as he also took a seat on a bench opposite the two other men.

"This stays in this room, okay?" Seth began, receiving nods of agreement from both of his bothers. "There's something going on with Ronda."

"What, you think she's got another guy on the go?" Dean asked, heading down totally the wrong path, as was often the case with him.

"No!" Seth exclaimed as if he found the suggestion offensive somehow. His reaction seemed overly defensive even to himself, considering that he had only had one dinner date with Ronda, at least as far as his two brothers were concerned. There was no way for the other two men to know that he had been halfway to fucking Ronda in her locker room less than an hour earlier. They would not be finding out about it now, either. Having sex in a locker room was not his style, and it would not have been a good idea. In a way, on reflection he was grateful to Brie Bella for interrupting them. If something was going to come of this with Ronda, then their first time definitely should definitely not be a quick and cheap fuck in a locker room.

"It's not something with Ronda and I, it's something with her," Seth clarified. "You remember I told you about her neck injury? Well, there's still something going on with that."

"What, you think she's still hurt?" Roman asked, raising his eyebrows in surprise.

"No, I don't know, maybe," Seth sighed, his confusion obvious. "I asked her, but she said that her neck's fine and that WWE put her through fitness tests before they would sign her. But when Orton suggested that she could take a bump off the apron onto the barrier as part of our finish, I noticed how she reacted to it. It wasn't a big reaction, I don't think Orton even saw it, but I definitely did. I saw that she was afraid to do the spot. After Randy left the room, I asked her if she was still hurt. I may have been a little too direct, but she was about to walk out and I had to make her stop. She had her back to me, but I'm sure she thought for a second about telling me something. Whatever it was, she changed her mind and just said that her neck is fine, and that she doesn't want to talk about it. So, what am I supposed to do?"

"She doesn't want to talk, and she said she's fine. Do you actually have to do anything?" Dean asked. At times, talking with Dean could be frustrating. He often saw things as black and white when in fact they were grey. If he was honest, Seth would have admitted that it was really Roman's advice that he was seeking on this occasion, but the three men always discussed things as a group. Besides, Seth knew that Dean meant well and was trying to help in his own way.

"Don't be an idiot," Roman said, without any hostility in his voice. "Of course he's going to try and help her. It sounds like it's obvious Ronda has some kind of problem. Listen," he ordered Seth. "This is obviously a sensitive subject for her, so you can't go at her with guns blazing, throwing questions at her and demanding that she speaks to you about it. From what you described, it sounds like she thought about talking to you, but then decided that she wasn't ready or didn't want to. She'll talk to you when, if, she's ready and willing to. That's her decision to make, not yours. As for her injury, or lack of it, WWE must have put her through tests, as she says, and she doesn't seem like an idiot to me. I can't imagine that she's out there still carrying a bad neck injury and putting herself in danger of hurting herself even more. I'd guess that what's going on is that she's frightened."

"Frightened?" Dean asked doubtfully, eyes narrowing at what sounded to him like a very strange notion. "Frightened of falling off the ring apron? Fuck off, man."

As Dean spoke, Seth had been considering what Roman had said. "No, he might be right," he said thoughtfully. "Like he said, Ronda's not stupid. She's a professional. Hell, she's an Olympic athlete, so I can't see her putting herself at risk if she was still injured. And in any case, WWE wouldn't allow it. They wouldn't have hired her if there was any doubt about her carrying a serious injury. Let's say for a moment that you're right, Roman, that she's frightened, and let's say that she talks to me about it. How do I help her to deal with it?"

All three men sat silently in thought for a moment before Dean mumbled to himself, "When I was a kid and I fell off my bike, my dad would always say the best thing to do was get right back on." Then he spoke up, "Hey, that's it. You've got to get her in the ring and make her take a bump, a proper one. Once she knows she can do it..."

Seth's eyes lit up and he cut in, "No, that's not what I'm going to do. But, I do know what I am going to do. Thanks guys. Dean, you're the man." With that he took out his phone and headed for the door.

"Don't worry," Dean grinned at Roman as the door banged closed behind Seth, "I'll be the one who pretends to know what the fuck's going on."

* * *

The match to decide who got the spot in the triple threat match at the Royal Rumble and whether or not Randy Orton would be forced to leave the WWE had the crowd enthralled. It was not the loudest crowd ever on Monday Night Raw by any means, but they were cheering and booing at the appropriate times, which at least showed that they were invested in the contest.

Ronda got the call in her earpiece to start bringing the match to a close, which she passed on to Randy Orton. In turn, his attempt to line up an RKO the next time Seth was down was the cue to Jamie Noble to play his part. Orton lay coiled on the mat, ready to strike, but before he could deliver the move, Jamie reached into the ring and grabbed his foot, yanking him towards the ropes. As Michael Cole complained loudly that it should be a disqualification, Orton stood and pulled Jamie up onto the apron before nailing him with a right hand to the face.

The diminutive Noble fell to the floor, where he was quickly attended to by his sidekick Joey Mercury. Ronda stepped through the ropes and yelled at them, "Hey! You two, you get involved again and I'm ringing the bell! You hear me? Stay off the apron!"

As planned, Seth was whipped into the ropes at that moment, bumping Ronda as gently as he could without making it look lame. It was the moment she had been dreading, but Ronda followed through on what she had agreed to do and jumped off the apron, making sure to hit the barrier, cushioning the fall with her hands before falling to the floor. Fear gripped her stomach tightly, but as she lay on the floor she quickly discovered that all of her extremities moved and felt the way that they should. She had survived the fall uninjured.

As Ronda breathed a sigh of relief on the floor, Noble and Mercury took advantage of the fact that there was no referee and rushed the ring, attacking Randy from behind as he stomped Seth in the corner. The crowd booed loudly at the blatant cheating as the beat down commenced. Quickly, Seth regained his feet and joined in with his two security guards, all three men stomping Randy mercilessly.

A loud cheer broke out as Dean Ambrose ran to the ring. Dean was no ally of Randy Orton, but he had in his opinion been screwed out of a victory against Seth the week before, and wanted revenge. Dean hit the ring and set about dismantling Noble and Mercury with right hands before hitting Noble with Dirty Deeds. As Dean regained his feet, Mercury got a right hand which staggered Dean onto the middle rope, but he used his own momentum to come off and deliver his signature clothesline, sending Mercury almost for a back flip.

From her position on the floor, Ronda had been able to sneak a glance at the huge screen at the top of the entrance ramp, waiting for the right moment to get up. Selling her supposed injuries from the fall, she climbed awkwardly onto the apron as Dean reversed a move from Seth and got him in position for Dirty Deeds. The crowd cheered loudly, but Ronda waved her arms, signalling to Dean not to deliver the move. Ignoring her instructions, Dean hit the move, leaving Seth flat on his face in the middle of the ring.

Ronda charged across the apron, motioning for the timekeeper to ring the bell. The bell rang several times as Ronda walked down the ring steps. Lillian Garcia walked over, unsure what to announce. Dean stood at the ropes in the ring, staring down at Ronda as she gave her decision to Lillian. A cameraman got around to film the conversation between the two women, but not in time and all that his mic picked up was Ronda saying, "...wins the match and advances to the Royal Rumble."

"What's the decision?" Michael Cole demanded.

"Ladies and gentlemen," Lillian announced, "The winner of the match, as a result of a disqualification due to outside interference, and the man who advances to the triple threat match at the Royal Rumble..." She left a theatrical pause. "Seth Rollins!"

The crowd erupted in boos and Randy Orton, who was now up and on his feet, kicked the ropes and buried his face in his hands in frustration and anger. Losing the match meant that he was gone from the WWE.

"No! That's ridiculous!" Michael Cole yelled. "Rousey saw Noble put his hands on Orton before Ambrose even came out here. That's two weeks in a row she's aided Seth Rollins, and I don't like it at all."

"Now, wait a minute, let's not go too far," Booker T cautioned. "I wouldn't say she aided Rollins. I mean, Ambrose did hit him with Dirty Deeds right in front of her. What was she supposed to do?"

"You saw Ronda Rousey telling Ambrose not to give Rollins that move as clearly as I did," JBL joined in. "She told him not to do it, and he did it. That's a disqualification any way you look at it. Orton is out of here, and Seth Rollins is in the triple threat match at the Royal Rumble. That's where cheating gets you, Randy."

In the ring, Orton took out his frustrations on Ambrose by hitting him with an RKO, changing the direction of the commentary and preventing Cole from continuing the argument. Seth, already having evacuated the ring, retreated to the entrance ramp where his hand was raised by Ronda. Raw went off the air moments later, leaving Seth and Ronda to walk through the curtain to the backstage area side by side.

As the pair walked through the curtain, they found Hunter approaching them. The boss told them that he was very pleased with the ending of the match and their execution of it, handing out praise to both Seth and Ronda before moving on to Orton as he also walked through the curtain.

"I really enjoyed that," Ronda smiled at Seth as they walked into the hallway which would lead them to the locker rooms. "It's great getting that kind of reaction from the fans. I think they're going to start to hate me real soon."

"I know, right?" Seth smiled. "Being a heel beats being a face any day of the week, for me at least. Seriously, nice job out there."

"Thank you," Ronda smiled. "As I said, I really enjoyed it."

"Even the fall from the apron?" Seth asked gently, unable to resist the opening that Ronda had left for him.

A couple of seconds of silence hung awkwardly between them as they walked, before Ronda responded. "No. That part I didn't enjoy."

Seth remembered Roman's advice about pushing too hard and letting Ronda to be the one to decide when or if the conversation about her injury happened. For that reason, he decided not to push any further. "Do you have anything planned for dinner?" he asked instead.

A different kind of smile appeared on Ronda's face as she stopped walking. Seth stopped beside her and they stood facing each other. "I'm in the same hotel as you guys are," she said. "I was going to eat in their restaurant. As we have something to continue from earlier, I guess you should join me?" she teased, thinking back to how Brie had interrupted them in the locker room.

"I guess I should," Seth pretended to consider the offer, feeling lust begin to burn inside him. He could see the same emotion in Ronda's blue eyes as she bit her bottom lip softly. Before either of them knew what was happening, they were locked in a passionate kiss which lasted for a long moment before Seth pulled away. "Not here," he breathed. "Too many people with big mouths wandering around. When you get in the locker room, get my number from Nikki or Brie and text me so I have your number. I'll call you later, okay?"

Ronda nodded her agreement and turned away, quickly heading for her nearby locker room quickly and closing the door more forcefully than necessary, leaving Seth with the impression that she had not trusted herself to keep her hands off him if she remained around him any longer. Walking off towards his own locker room, he could not keep a smile from his face.

Standing unnoticed at the end of the hallway, Dean Ambrose also had a smile on his face, having just witnessed the pair talking and then kissing. He knew his brother well enough to see that he was already lost on Ronda Rousey. It seemed that the same could be said of Ronda in return. Seth deserved some happiness after the way his previous relationship had ended, even it had been his own stupid fault for cheating. At least that lesson seemed to have been learned.

"Good for you, bro," Dean mumbled to himself as he sauntered off after the younger man to join him in the locker room, having already decided not to mention what he had just seen.


	6. Chapter 6

Ronda checked herself in the full length mirror in her hotel room one last time. Yes, she decided, she was ready to head down to the restaurant for her dinner date with Seth. She was happy with the way she looked in her dark blue dress. However, having looked in the mirror, she now felt strangely unable to look away from her own face in the reflection. The person in the mirror looked nervous again, frightened, even.

"Even the fall from the apron?" Seth had asked her in the hallway earlier in the night, after the match. His voice repeated itself in her head several times as the familiar feeling of nausea began to make its presence known in her stomach. Although he undoubtedly meant well, Seth's keenness to discuss her neck injury in an attempt to help her was having the opposite effect. The neck injury was something she actively tried not to think about, let alone going around talking about it with people. In fact, she never talked about it with anyone. Fear was not an emotion she allowed herself to show anywhere but in privacy, as hard as that was proving to be lately. Without realising that she had been about to do it, she felt the fingers of her left hand touching the small scar on the back of her neck which had been caused by the surgery. It was a habit that she was totally unable to break, and now, as with every other time, it caused the memories of that awful day and the lengthy rehab that had followed her surgery to all come flooding back to her.

"Ronda? Are you okay sweetheart? Come on, up you get." Her mother's face had appeared above her as she lay motionless on the grass, having just made the realisation that she could not feel or move her legs. The older woman had smiled nervously and held out a hand for her to use to help with getting to her feet.

"Mom," Ronda gasped out in panic, "I can't. My legs. I can't move my legs..."

"What?" Her mother asked, her eyes widening in horror.

"I can't feel my legs," Ronda managed to stammer through her fear.

Her mother crouched down beside her, but she knew better than to try to move someone who potentially had a serious neck injury. "Oh God, baby, let me call for help." She took out her phone. Ronda saw her gulp and saw the panic in her eyes intensify. "Uh... there's no service out here. Oh God. I'm going to have to go and try to..."

"Help me mom!" Ronda pleaded, even though she knew that there was nothing that her mother or anyone else could do for her.

Snapping out of the memory, Ronda ran for the bathroom and fell to her knees before dry heaving over the toilet. Realising that on this occasion she was not actually going to be sick, she sank to a sitting position on the floor beside the toilet and buried her face in her hands, letting out a loud scream of anguish and frustration, the volume of it magnified by the tiled walls of the small bathroom.

"Get the hell out of my head," she pleaded with the memories that tortured her so persistently. As usual, the second memory quickly followed the first and paid her a visit. The familiar scene of the doctor's office, with the doctor sitting behind his desk in front of her.

The kind looking old guy glanced at a folder that sat open in front of him on his desk before returning his attention to her with a smile. "Well, Ronda," he said, the warmth in his smile matched in his voice, "I've looked over your scans and I have good news."

"Really?" Ronda asked uneasily.

"Yeah. Honestly, I couldn't have better news. It's taken us a long time to get here, but you've made a full recovery. I'm happy to say that you I can sign you off; you don't need to come back and see me again, and you can return to your uh... activities that you enjoy. Judo, boxing, and even horse riding, if you wish."

The final part of the doctor's sentence had been an attempt at a joke, but they had the opposite effect to that which he intended. "Thank you Doctor," Ronda said and hurried out of the office as fast as she could, ignoring his request for her to wait a moment. As she rushed out of the building to her car, tears stung her eyes because the doctor was wrong; there was no way that she could return to doing any of the things that she loved to do the most.

As she sat on the cold bathroom floor, tears flowed freely down her cheeks. "I can't go on like this," she told the empty room despairingly.

It was then, sitting on that bathroom floor, that Ronda realised she was at a crossroads in her life. She was hundreds of miles from home, alone, in a hotel room bathroom, sitting on the floor, crying her eyes out. There were only two ways to go forward from here: either she had to quit her job with WWE, go back home and find something else to do for a living that didn't involve the memories of her neck injury being brought up constantly, or she had talk to someone and try to get help.

But wasn't talking to people and getting therapy or whatever they called it for weak people? She was sure she was not a weak person. Sitting in some shrink's office and talking through her life like some kind of basket case was not something she could ever imagine being able to do. Hell, there was only one person aside from her family that she had ever let in on the story of how she had gotten injured in the first place, and that was Seth Rollins. Why she had allowed herself to do that on her first date with him was still a mystery to her. The only guess she could make was that it was how genuinely kind, compassionate and trustworthy he had seemed. Maybe if she opened up to Seth he would be able to help her? But then, why would he want to be saddled with her personal baggage?

"Shit!" Ronda exclaimed, leaping up from the floor. She did not have a clue how long she had been there. Checking her watch confirmed that she was late for her dinner date, and she was going to have to fix her make up again before she could leave, since it been ruined by her tears.

When the makeup had been applied for the second time, Ronda was once again staring at herself in a mirror. This time there was a look of determination on her face. She was not going to quit WWE; she had never quit from anything before in her life and she damned well was not going to start now.

"Talk to him, you stupid bitch," she growled at the reflection in the mirror.

* * *

Sitting alone at a table set for two was possibly one of the most awkward feelings in the world. Seth felt like a total prick looking awkwardly at those who were sitting around him, chatting with their partners, friends or families.

"Can I get you another?" a server asked as he passed by, stopping and gesturing at Seth's empty beer glass. He was tempted to tell the guy not to bother, cut his losses and get out of the restaurant, but he decided to have one more beer and wait a little longer for Ronda to show up. She had been keen on the idea of a dinner date earlier, yet now there was no sign of her. It did not make sense for her to no-show. He had heard of being fashionably late, of course, but this was something else entirely.

His mind began to wander, and he found himself thinking that Ronda Rousey was certainly no ordinary woman. He had looked her up online a few days before and found out that not only was she an Olympic bronze medalist in judo, she was also a fourth dan black belt in the art as well. The reality was that she was likely one of the toughest unarmed women on the planet, and that was one hell of a turn on for him. It was a shame that her incredible talent was being wasted on a career as a referee in WWE. Sure, she was obviously a very good referee, but she could be so much more than that if it was not for her neck injury. Hell, if she was able to compete as one of the divas WWE would have no choice but to put her in the title picture because it would be inconceivable for any of the divas to live with her in the ring. In a real fight, most of the men on the roster would probably struggle to get the better of her.

The server arrived with Seth's second beer, and he began to work on it. Drinking beer was not a regular thing for him, especially since he had joined the WWE, least of all during the week. However, there were sometimes occasions to indulge himself and he had decided that tonight would be one such occasion. He planned to enjoy a steak, the best dessert on the menu and three beers. That was how many it took for him to start to get tipsy these days, embarrassing as that would be to admit to Roman and Dean. Although he was not as impatient as some guys, Ronda's lateness was starting to grate on his nerves, but he remained confident that she was not going to stand him up.

At long last, he saw Ronda enter the restaurant, looking breathtakingly stunning in a dark blue dress. He gave a little wave which assisted her in locating him in the busy restaurant, and she hurried in his direction as he set his half consumed beer down on the table and stood to greet her, being as polite as possible.

"Hey, Seth," she smiled. "I'm sorry I'm so late. I, uh, lost track of the time."

"Hi, Ronda," Seth gave his date a peck on the cheek. "You look great, and it's fine. Have a seat. They have quite a good menu here actually."

They both took their seats opposite each other and Seth watched Ronda open and scan over the menu, thinking that one thing she clearly was not too great at was lying. Her feeble excuse about losing track of time had been just that: a lie. Ronda quickly made a selection and closed her menu.

The server was busy with other tables, given how busy the restaurant was, so Seth struck up a conversation about the city that they were going to be in the next week for Raw and Smackdown. As he talked, he could tell that something was preventing Ronda's attention from being fully focused on what he was saying. It was the kind of conversation that you had when someone was listening to you but also thinking about something else at the same time. He described a restaurant that he, Roman and Dean had happened across the last time they had been in the city, and how nice its location next to a river was for sitting outside and eating.

"We should meet up early on the Monday and grab some lunch there, if you want to I mean," he offered.

"Yeah," Ronda said, a vague smile on her face as her left hand reached up to the back of her neck. The movement looked almost subconscious to Seth, so he chose not let on that he had noticed it, or that he had figured out the reason for Ronda's distracted behaviour and for the fact that she was spending half of the time avoiding looking him in the eyes. Yet again, her neck injury was playing on her mind as it seemed to so often.

As he kept up his end of the conversation, Seth's mind was now as occupied with the injury as Ronda's obviously was. Roman had advised him not to bring up the subject with her again, saying that it would be better to wait for her to do so with him when, or rather if, she decided to. But maybe that was exactly the problem, he considered. Maybe she was one of those people who kept things bottled up inside and did not talk to others about her problems. With something as traumatising as a near paralysing neck injury, that could be a very destructive thing to do. It was all well and good people not wanting to bring up the subject and upset her, but it was not necessarily for the best. But how could he actually bring up the subject sensitively? That was the big problem he had to solve, as he needed her to open up, not shut down.

Ronda had just asked Seth a question. He had not answered right away, which caused her to stop looking down at her fingers which she was nervously playing with and instead look across at her date. Their eyes met and she saw in them that he knew what was going on her head. She supposed that the way she was acting had hardly made a secret of it. Those deep brown eyes told her that Seth knew that she was dwelling on her neck injury again, and that she had not been honest with him about it. Remembering what she had told herself back in her room, she opened her mouth to talk but Seth beat her to it.

"You don't have to keep it all bottled up inside," he said gently, with such compassion in his voice that it instantly made her feel like bursting into tears, something that had been very foreign to her before the injury, but not so since. "It's eating you alive, I can tell. If you don't want to talk to me, let me get the number of a therapist for you. I won't go to Hunter. I'll do it on the quiet, I promise. Let me help you."

"Sorry for the wait sir, ma'am. What can I get for you?" The server had finally decided to show up with the worst possible timing. Feeling very frustrated Seth allowed Ronda to order first and then ordered for himself. The server left and an awkward silence descended on the table.

Looking down at her hands once more, Ronda finally mumbled, "I'm not going to a therapist, Seth. That's just... It's just not me."

"Okay," Seth agreed easily, knowing that this was a very delicate moment. He needed to apply no pressure. "So talk to your parents, or a friend, or me, or Stephanie. Yeah, I bet Stephanie would be a good option."

Looking across the table he saw that Ronda had gone very pale and looked like she might be about to be sick. He was about to get up and walk around the table to escort her to the bathroom when she spoke. "I need to get drunk. Very drunk. Then I'll talk to you. We'll go up to my room and talk... If you really mean it?"

At that moment Seth barely considered that his prospects for having sex with Ronda that night had long since disappeared, despite just receiving an invitation to her room. All he cared about was that she was willing to talk to him. For whatever reason, he was the one she wanted to trust. "Of course I mean it," he assured her. "I mean, I'm not a professional and I've never had a serious injury, knock on wood." He knocked on the table leg which drew a little smile from Ronda as he continued, "But I'll listen. You can tell me as much or as little as you like. Honestly, I'd say let it all out, but that's your choice. Either way, I'll say nothing to anyone about whatever you say to me."

He already suspected that when Ronda finally broke through her own defenses, she would not be able to stop herself talking. That would be a good thing. Rather than sex, there was almost certainly going to be a lot of heartache and tears. It was what Ronda obviously needed desperately, and that mattered more to him than sex. Sex could come another time; at the right time.

The conversation gradually started to flow more easily throughout the meal, as a direct result of the red wine that Ronda was putting away at a considerable pace. Getting drunk was certainly not going to be a problem for her. When they were done, Seth paid for everything and, as agreed, they headed for Ronda's room. The closer they got to the room, the more tension Seth could feel radiating from her.

They entered the room and Ronda sat on the bed, with Seth opposite her in a comfortable chair. Seth thought that she looked like she was close to being sick. For that reason, he gently took her hand and tried to give her a reassuring smile, feeling completely out of his depth - not realising what a great job he was actually doing.

"There's nothing to be afraid of here," he encouraged her. "We're just talking."

Scrunching her eyes closed tightly, Ronda falteringly started to speak. As Seth had expected, it was like pulling the cork on a bottle of champagne which had been vigorously shaken before hand. Her words were soon tumbling out almost faster than he could understand them. Several times he had to gently urge her to slow down or repeat herself when her voice became too lost in her tears for him to understand, but in less than half an hour she had told him everything.

By that point, he was sitting beside her with his arms wrapped tightly around her as she cried into his chest, soaking his shirt with her tears and clinging to him just as tightly as he was holding her. The idea that Dean had inadvertently given to him earlier in the evening returned to him and he decided that he had to go through with it.

"Please stop crying," he said gently, stroking the top of her head. "It's okay, Ronda, you're not hurt any more and you're not going to be hurt again. Your injury was a freak accident, and it's not going to happen again. I'll be honest, I already suspected some of what you've told me. I've been thinking about it, and I've got an idea that I think will help you. If you'll trust me, we can do it tomorrow morning before we have to be at the arena for Smackdown."

"I trust you," Ronda whispered.


	7. Chapter 7

The sound of running water was the first thing that Seth noticed when he woke. It took a few seconds for him to remember where he was, and to figure out why he was fully clothed in bed. Then it all came back to him. He had climbed into bed with Ronda to comfort her as she fell asleep. Apparently he had then fallen asleep himself, and had been there ever since. Usually, he was quite a restless sleeper which meant that he was often tired in the mornings as his body struggled to get going, but this morning he already felt great even before getting out of bed.

Feeling great was one thing, but when he looked in the mirror he saw that he looked exactly the opposite. His clothes were creased, his hair was a mess and he had been sweating during the night. What he really needed was to go and join Ronda in the shower. Damn, that was an image, he thought. Telling himself that the time would come soon enough, he tried his best to make himself look something like presentable as he waited for Ronda to emerge from the bathroom.

"Oh, hey," Ronda greeted him when she finally appeared ten minutes later, fully dressed but with her long blonde hair still damp from the shower.

"Good morning," he smiled, getting up from his sitting position on the end of the bed, having turned on the TV a few minutes earlier, not knowing how long the wait was going to be.

Taking him a little by surprise, Ronda walked right over and hugged him. Her embrace was strong, which was a lot less of a surprise than the fact that she was actually doing it. "Thank you for last night," she said quietly. "Thank you for making, letting, me talk to you, and for staying with me. I'm sure it's not what you had in mind, but, uh, I needed it."

Returning the hug, Seth breathed in the smell of Ronda's sweet shampoo and felt something stirring within him once more. Again, this was not the time for that though. "I know you did," he said. "I could see how you were struggling. You're right though," he added, now joking, "It's not what I had in mind. Let's say you owe me."

Ronda released the embrace and took a small step back from him. Grinning, she said, "Asshole."

The girl had a sense of humour, another thing that Seth liked a lot in a woman.

"So what is the plan for today?" Ronda asked, referring to his request from the previous night for her to trust him and let him help her with her mental problem relating to her injury. The fact that physically there was nothing wrong with her had actually been quite a surprise for him. It was great news. If she could beat these mental problems, there was no reason why she could not get back into judo, or, even better as far as he was concerned, she could talk to Hunter about a change of career within WWE. They were all things to discuss in the future, though.

"The plan is, I go to my room, shower, change, then meet you downstairs for breakfast in half an hour. Then you trust me, and we take a drive somewhere."

"Where?" Ronda demanded. "I don't like surprises."

"Get used to it," Seth smiled, "Because I do."

"Asshole," she grinned once more.

"You know how to hurt a guy," Seth said, pretending to be upset by the insult.

"You better believe it." Ronda confirmed. Her eyes were twinkling with humour, but she gave him her fiercest facial expression.

"Downstairs, half an hour?" Seth asked, laughing.

"Yeah," Ronda agreed, her smile returning. Seth gave her a peck on the cheek and made to leave, but Ronda grabbed his arm to stop him. "Seth?"

"What?" he asked, gazing into her beautiful blue eyes.

"Thank you. Again." With that, Ronda kissed him. It was not a furiously passionate kiss as their previous ones had been. Somehow Seth liked it more for that reason. This was a more tender, loving kiss.

"You're welcome," he said as she released his arm after the kiss. He felt a little awkward, unsure of anything else that he could have said in that moment. "I'll see you in the restaurant."

Their eyes remained connected for a brief moment before Seth walked out of the room. As the door closed behind him and he walked away, he felt a mixture of emotions. He was happy to have made the first step with Ronda, both in terms of helping her, and starting to build trust in the very early stages of what he hoped would become a relationship with a woman who he realised he had fallen for. But equally, he was a hot blooded man and he badly wanted the sex. In some ways, being a good guy could be very frustrating.

Back in her room, Ronda sat on her bed using a hair dryer. Her mind was a long way from the task at hand. Instead, she found herself wondering what she had done to have a man as amazing Seth Rollins come into her life. Not many men would have done what he had done for her the previous night; they would have either avoided the awkward subject of her injury entirely, or if they had shown concern it would have only been as a way to get back to her room, in the hope of getting some sex out of it. There had not been even a hint of that from Seth. Every instinct told her that he really did genuinely care about her, and wanted to help her overcome her issues with regard to her neck injury.

Lying in his arms as she drifted off to sleep, feeling so... loved was the only word for it, she realised, was a moment that she would not forget. She knew that thinking Seth was in love with her at this point was stupid, but nonetheless, that was the way it seemed. As for her own feelings, she was not sure if love was what she felt for Seth, but one thing was for sure: whatever it was that he had planned for her this morning that he thought would help her to make progress with dealing with her fears about her neck injury, she had no concerns at all about trusting him.

* * *

"Follow the road for one mile," the satnav in Seth's car chirped as he made a turn onto another rural road. Much like the previous one they had been on, it appeared to lead to the back end of nowhere.

"Okay, I want to know where we're going," Ronda demanded impatiently, for the third time during the journey. "We've been on the road for nearly an hour."

"Another mile and you'll find out, and we've not been on the road that long," Seth smiled, thinking that so far the morning had been very enjoyable. Conversation had flowed freely between them over breakfast. It had been remarkable to see the change in her from the previous night when they had been eating in the same restaurant. Rather than distracted, awkward and nervous, she had been what he already knew was herself; confident, funny and at ease when talking about herself with him. Also that habit of touching her neck that he had noticed seemed to have vanished. Talking to someone was something that a lot of people seriously underrated as a way to deal with things. Despite this, he had steadfastly refused to tell her what his plan was as he was not one hundred per cent convinced that she would not have tried to back out if she had known what he had in mind for her. Once they were actually there, it would be harder for her to back out, and that was something he really did not want her to do. If she could do this today then she would be making real, serious progress.

"Here we are," Seth announced as the satnav also confirmed that they had reached their destination. He turned the car slowly onto the graveled road that led into the destination and Ronda read the sign that welcomed visitors.

"Wait a minute," she blurted out, sounding very unsure already.

"You said you would trust me," Seth reminded her gently as he pulled the car to a stop. There was another sign welcoming visitors on the front of the building which he had parked next to. Ronda stared at it nervously. "Come on," he urged a moment later as he opened the door on her side of the car.

"I said I'd trust you, but I didn't think you'd bring me to a stables. You're not getting me on a horse, Seth."

"Yes, I am." Seth said gently. "Come on. You're going to be fine. We're going to do this together. Didn't your parents ever tell you when you were a kid that if you fell off your bike and hurt yourself, the first thing you had to do was get back on again?"

"Yeah, but I never broke my damn neck falling off my bike," Ronda mumbled as she got out of the car very unenthusiastically. "I really don't want to do this," she moaned as Seth closed the door and locked the car.

Seth gently lifted her chin slightly, making her look into his eyes. "I know you don't want to do it, but you need to do it. Like I said, trust me. I already made a call and sorted this all out. They've got their gentlest horse ready for us, and we're going to have a whole field to ourselves. We're going to walk around it with you on the horse. That's all. I'm going to hold onto his reigns and we're going to walk. Can you do that?"

"Yes," Ronda heard herself whisper a moment later. Seth had clearly put a lot of thought into this. He was trying to make it as easy as he possibly could for her. Again, she felt every instinct telling her to trust him. The idea of getting on a horse was something that would have terrified her and sent her running in the opposite direction only the day before, but over the next fifteen minutes, she found herself being introduced to one of the stable's staff, dressing in the proper attire and then meeting a small brown horse called Bobby. Not once did she feel like she was going to be sick right there on the spot - a very pleasant surprise. There was an uneasy feeling in her stomach, but it was manageable rather than overwhelming. Seth's presence was playing a big part in that.

Shortly, she and Seth were lead to a small, enclosed field not too far from the stable block. The female staff member left them to it. Seth held Bobby's reigns and smiled as he gestured for Ronda to mount the horse. "Climb on, or whatever they call it," he said.

With the moment at hand, Ronda's nervousness suddenly grew in intensity. As she looked at the relatively small horse in front of her, she did not think that she was going to be able to go through with it.

"It's fine, honestly," Seth encouraged. "You know horses better than I do, and even I can tell that he's not going to do anything crazy. I asked them for the gentlest horse they have. Get on."

Although Ronda knew he was right about Bobby, making her legs actually move was proving to be impossible. "Seth, thank you for doing this," she managed to say. "You don't know what it means to me." She meant every word, but she was also using it as a way to stall for time.

"I haven't done anything yet. You have to get on." Seth watched as Ronda closed her eyes, giving him the distinct impression that she was counting herself down to doing it in her head. Sure enough, after a few seconds went by she almost startled him by quickly leaping up onto Bobby's back.

"Oh shit," her voice trembled.

"You're fine, Ronda," Seth said gently. "You're okay. Look, Bobby's okay with you on his back. Let's walk." Watching carefully just in case Ronda panicked and wanted to get off, Seth began to lead Bobby across the field at a very gentle pace.

After ten minutes of walking around the field, with Seth occasionally asking her if she was okay or is she wanted to stop, Ronda found herself wondering what on Earth she had been so afraid of. What Seth said was true; her fall and her neck injury had been a freak accident. There was no reason to be scared of being on Bobby's back. There had been no fear any other time she had ridden a horse. Thanks to Seth, she was not afraid now. "Seth?" she asked.

"Want to stop?" Seth asked quickly.

"No, I want you to let go of him. Let me have him. I want to try and trot for a minute."

"Are you sure?" Seth asked in surprise.

"Yeah."

Without objecting, Seth did as Ronda asked, watching with a smile on his face as she and Bobby spent the next few minutes trotting around the field before she brought the horse back over to him and jumped down to the ground beside him.

"Thank you. Thank you so much," she told him earnestly. "I can't explain how I feel just so much... better. It's like..."

"A weight off your mind?" Seth suggested.

"Yeah, but more than that. I just feel like I don't even know what I've been so afraid of all this time." With that, she stepped up to Seth and simultaneously embraced and kissed him. "Thank you for doing this, and for being here. I can't ever repay this."

"Sure you can," Seth said quietly, his mouth to her ear, "Join me for dinner tonight. You can even pay, if that makes you feel better."

"Okay, deal," Ronda laughed.

They started to walk towards the gate to exit the field. Seth had been thinking a lot about this morning and this moment in particular, preparing for the eventuality if things played out perfectly for Ronda, as indeed they had. "I know you might still have a way to go, and you might still need to talk to someone, but I've been thinking. You said that you know your neck is fine, so aren't you, uh, wasted as a referee?" he asked.

Ronda looked at him and he saw that what he was hinting at had only just dawned on her as he said it. Her eyes widened slightly and her mouth dropped open a little before a smile broke out and her eyes seemed to gleam. "You mean I should talk to Hunter and see if... See if I could wrestle? I'm not ready for that, Seth. I mean, getting back on a horse is one thing, but taking wrestling moves?"

Seth opened the gate and waited while Ronda and Bobby walked through to exit the field. "I know, but if you told Hunter the truth, he would have people work with you on that. Trust me, WWE have some amazing people working for them."

"I'm with one of them right now," Ronda said, taking Seth's hand in her own and not caring how tacky she had just sounded.

"Oh, come on now," Seth said modestly, liking the feeling of Ronda's hand in his own as he felt his cheeks warming up quickly in the cold January air.

"You're blushing, Seth Rollins," Ronda giggled, feeling so at ease around him. It felt like they had known each other for a long time, not that they had only shared two dinner dates and a tearful night in a hotel room. There was no denying true feelings, and that was what she had for him. "If I did speak to Hunter, don't you think he'd be pissed off?" she asked. "I mean, I didn't exactly lie when I said I couldn't wrestle because of my neck but, I certainly wasn't honest with him about the exact reason."

Now it was Seth's turn to laugh. "Do I think Hunter will be pissed off if Ronda Rousey walks into his office and tells him that if he can get her the right help and training, she wants to wrestle for him? No, I really don't," he smiled.


	8. Chapter 8

"This guy, I've seen him somewhere before," Dean Ambrose said with a confused look on his face, as if he was trying to recall some kind of distant memory of the person who had just entered the locker room. "Don't tell me... Don't tell me..."

"Uh, Seth? Seth Rollins?" Roman Reigns guessed, joining in with the sarcasm. "It is you, right?"

"Very funny, guys," Seth sighed, dropping his bag to the floor, relieved to have arrived in the arena for the Smackdown taping before the call time, just. "Yes it's really me, and yes I'm sorry I missed you at breakfast. And then I skipped the workout, too."

Dean walked over to Seth and put an arm around his shoulders. "It's okay, man. We forgive you. Now where is it?"

"Where's what?" Seth asked, knowing that this was going to be another wind up.

"The leash Ronda's got you on." Dean burst out laughing and so did Roman.

"Get off me you asshole," Seth told Dean, laughing as he tried to shrug his friend away. This only made things worse as Dean quickly got him into a headlock. "Fuck off!" Seth managed to yell, still laughing.

"Should I get off him?" Dean asked Roman with a huge grin on his face.

"Hmmmm," the older man pretended to consider the question as Seth continued to struggle, achieving nothing. "Yeah, I suppose so. That is, if he promises not to forget about us now he's got himself a girlfriend."

"Awww, is that we he's got?" Dean pretended to be surprised. "Little Seth got a girlfriend. Ain't that cute?" Finally he released the headlock and was immediately shoved across the locker room by Seth, who was still laughing.

"Screw you, you pair of idiots. Neither of you can say anything. Rome, you're married, and Dean, well, I've seen you with Renee, you certainly can't say anything."

"Renee lets me out to play with my friends though," Dean quipped, still with the huge grin on his face, loving the childish banter.

"Seriously though, where were you?" Roman asked, bringing an end to the foolishness, smoothly transitioning into his role as the big brother to the other two men. He could tell by the smile that Seth had been wearing when he walked into the room that he was okay, but eating breakfast and working out together had been the regular thing for the three former Shield members on a Tuesday morning for a long time. For Seth to miss out on both, something must have came of his date with Ronda the previous night.

"I'll tell you, but again, not a word to anyone else," Seth insisted as he attempted to sort out the mess that was now his hair thanks to Dean.

"You got it," Dean confirmed on behalf of both himself and Roman, now getting serious himself, or as close to it as he ever managed.

Seth began to unpack his ring gear from his bag as he began his story. "Ronda's neck injury? There is no neck injury. I mean, there was, but she got surgery and did the rehab and all that and she's recovered fully, physically that is. She told me all about it last night. She's got some kind of... I don't know what you'd call it. She's afraid of getting a neck injury again, is basically what I'm saying."

"Understandable," Roman said with a slight nod. "Breaking your neck is something that's going to stick in your mind, obviously. She opened up to you about all of this? That's surprising. Good, but surprising."

"I know," Seth agreed. "As I told you guys before, I picked up that her neck was bothering her and I told her that she needed to talk to someone. She said she wanted it to be me, and she told me the whole story. She fell of a horse and broke her neck. For a couple of minutes, she couldn't feel or move her legs, but gradually the feeling came back and she was able to walk to the nearest road with her mom's help. They were able to get someone to stop and take them to the nearest hospital. Dean, you gave me the idea about how to help her last time we talked about this."

Dean remembered the strange end to their previous conversation about Ronda, and how Seth had hurried from the room. "What idea?" he asked, confused.

"You said that when you were a kid, if you fell of your bike, you'd be told to get right back on again. It gave me the idea that the first step Ronda could take to getting past this thing would be to get back on a horse. I took her out to some stables this morning. We walked around a field with her on a horse. She was very nervous at first, but by the end of it she was enjoying it. It was really great to see. Does that sound lame? It does, right?"

"No," Dean said quickly, surprising the other two men with her rare show of sensitivity. "Fucking around aside, that's not lame. It's a really great thing you did. I'd have never thought of it. I bet it helped her a hell of a lot."

"He's right," Roman said, giving Seth a smile that, if anything, conveyed pride. "You probably helped the girl more than any of us can imagine. It's kind of strange that her family didn't help her with this themselves, but maybe she's kept it hidden from them?"

"Thanks guys," Seth smiled, a little embarrassed by the pride his brothers had in him, but pleased with it nonetheless. "I don't know what her family situation is, but I guess you might be right, Roman. She might have not been letting on what was going on in her head. I think it might have only gotten so bad for her when she started here and she had to think and talk about it more. Guess what I do know, though?"

"What?" Dean asked.

"She said she's going to take some time this week when she goes back home to talk to her family and do some thinking herself, but she's seriously considering talking to Hunter about quitting as a ref and training to wrestle."

"Oh shit," Roman grinned. "That would be pretty awesome. I mean, she damn sure looks the part, and she obviously knows how to fight, with the judo and stuff. If anything, they'd have to teach her _not_ to make her stuff look too convincing. She could do some real damage out there."

"Why don't you train her?" Dean asked, blindsiding Seth, who had not even considered that idea.

"Me? They'd send her down to Florida and have them do it, wouldn't they?"

"I might be the idiot among us, but even I can figure this out," Dean said, sounding slightly impatient. "She's got issues with her neck. She's going to have to get confidence in herself to take bumps. To start with, she needs to work with someone she trusts not to hurt her. She trusts you. She's obviously an idiot to do it, but she does trust you," he added as a joke.

That gave Seth something else to think about. What Dean said made a lot of sense, but would it be what Ronda wanted? And even if it was, would Hunter go for it? Quickly, he decided not to push things any further than he already had. It would be a better idea to leave Ronda to do her own thinking over the coming days. The subject of the conversation soon changed, as Dean and Roman began to discuss their respective matches and Seth bemoaned the fact that his only duty for the night was to sit on commentary for the main event.

* * *

Later in the night, Seth and Roman sat watching the show on the monitor in their locker room. Dean had just hit the shower after wrestling in the second match of the night. As he glanced at the man beside him, Roman allowed himself a smile, safe in the knowledge that it would go unseen. Usually, a match between Stardust and Fandango would not attract much attention from anyone, let alone Seth. That was actually still the case, as Seth was paying n attention to either of the competitors doing battle on the screen. What, or rather who, Seth was watching was the referee. It was amusing to Roman, but he would not say anything. After all, he had been lost on his own wife to a similar extent soon after meeting her. People in glass houses should not throw rocks.

"What the hell's he doing?" Seth demanded angrily, gesturing at the monitor.

"I wasn't paying attention," Roman said, looking back at the monitor to see Ronda reprimanding Stardust. To Roman's surprise, he shoved Ronda aside and resumed stomping on Fandango in the corner. Both Seth and Roman watched as Ronda counted to four, but could not count to five as that would mean having to call a disqualification, which was not the right ending to the match.

"Oh, for God's sake," Seth growled. "I knew some prick would do this sooner rather than later. He's deliberately making her look stupid."

Roman watched in silence as Ronda struggled to make it appear that she had some authority over the match, annoyed by the lack of professionalism that Cody Rhodes was displaying. Sexism, that was what this was about. Everyone knew that there had been several people complaining in the locker room about having a woman as a referee. Apparently this asshole was one of them.

A few moments later, Stardust had Fandango down in the middle of the ring and began to blatantly choke him in front of Ronda. It was clear that Ronda also knew what was going on now, but she was doing her best to remain calm and do her job. Again, she made a four count, only to be ignored. However, this time she took charge of the situation, pulling Stardust off his fallen opponent and to his feet before yelling at him to start listening to her counts and orders. She was doing a good job of remaining in character.

What happened next caused Seth to jump off his chair. Sometimes heel characters would mouth off at or even shove a referee to get cheap heat, but when Stardust shoved Ronda across the ring and threatened her to keep her hands off him Seth could tell there was real intent behind it. "I'm going to knock that prick out," he exploded as he headed for the locker room door.

With a sigh, Roman rushed after his friend. Only a few moments later, the match ended with Fandango getting the win with a roll up pin. Unaware of this, Roman ran and caught up to Seth in the hallway. Grabbing Seth by the shoulder, he spun him around so that they were face to face. "Stop, dude. Just stop. We all knew this was coming. Ronda knew this was coming, I'm sure. You can't go in there like you're her big brother, or especially her boyfriend. For a start, you're nowhere near that point with each other. And anyway, you need to let her deal with this herself."

"Fuck that," Seth raged. "I'm not going to let him..."

"Listen!" Roman yelled, getting Seth's full attention. "If you do what you're about to do you, won't be helping, you'll be making it worse. Calm the hell down for a second and think. You know I'm right. That dick is trying to bully Ronda, that's basically what this is. We all got bullied in school, I know I did. Do you stop a bully by running to a teacher? No. You stop a bully by standing up for yourself and smacking the son of a bitch in the mouth."

"What are you saying?" Seth asked, calming down a little, almost despite himself.

"I'm saying we go and wait near the side of the stage for them to come back here, and we see what happens. Unless we have to step in, we don't. We let Ronda take care of herself," Roman reasoned before smiling and adding some humor. "Honestly now, do you really think she couldn't take Cody in a fight? I know who my money's on."

"If he raises a hand to her..." Seth began to threaten.

"Like I said," Roman cut in. "We step in if we have to. Let's go." With that, the two men rushed off to wait for Ronda and Cody to return to the back. They only just made it in time. Cody walked through the curtain at the side of the stage a moment before their arrival, with Ronda not far behind him. Several other wrestlers were hanging around, making idle conversation as was always the case backstage. Everyone's attention was attracted by Ronda angrily yelling, "Hey! Cody! What the hell was that? Huh?"

Cody turned to face Ronda, who was storming towards him. "You got a problem?" he asked sarcastically.

"Yeah, I have got a problem," Ronda confirmed aggressively as she reached Cody and got in his face. "I've got a problem with you, and I asked what the hell that was out there?"

"I don't know what you mean," Cody grinned, clearly thinking he was clever. "You can't referee a match properly, what do you want me to do about it? You shouldn't be out there anyway, let's be honest."

"Wait a minute, you're out of line, man," Ryback chipped in, walking over towards the altercation. Roman gently took hold of Seth's arm, a reminder not to do anything, as they had agreed before.

"I've got this," Ronda told Ryback without breaking eye contact with Cody. "You sexist piece of crap," she hissed at him. "You stand there thinking you're something special? Who the hell are you? I mean, have you even seen yourself? You go out there dressed like that every week? I'd have more self respect," she laughed at Cody as if she pitied him. They were standing only inches apart. A small crowd had now formed around them, but no one else made an attempt to step in on Ronda's behalf. It was obvious to everyone that she wanted to stand up for herself. So far, she was not doing a bad job.

There were a few quiet moans of surprise and distaste and Roman tightened his grip on Seth's arm as Cody pushed Ronda away from him. "Get out of my face you stupid bitch," he snarled at her.

Anger was radiating from Ronda as she glared at Cody. "Try and touch me again, please," she growled at him. "Take a step forward, asshole. Take a step forward."

"What do you actually think you're going to do?" Cody sneered, sounding a little less sure of himself. Not only was he being called out by a woman in front of a bunch of his peers, hitting her was obviously out of the question.

"Take a step forward," Ronda said again. "I'll finish your pointless career right now."

"Stick to refereeing, sugar tits. You might even get good at it." Thinking that to be a good enough parting shot, Cody turned his back on Ronda to leave, only to see that he had an even bigger problem waiting for him in that direction.

"My office. Now," Hunter ordered Cody angrily from the position he had just taken up at the front of the crowd.

Cody stormed off without arguing, knowing that he had dropped himself in the deep end.

With the confrontation over, Seth had already rushed over to Ronda, making it to her before anyone else and shoving Xavier Woods away, not being aggressive, just letting the other man know he should back off. "You okay?" Seth asked Ronda, putting an arm around her, feeling her shaking with anger as she stared after Cody.

"That son of a bitch is lucky," Ronda growled.

"Calm down," Seth urged gently. "The guy's a prick and he's not worth it. Calm down."

"Show's over. Get out of here," Hunter ordered everyone in the hallway. Not needing to be told twice, the crowd, including Roman, quickly dispersed, leaving only Hunter, Seth and Ronda behind. Seth's continued presence did not go unnoticed by Hunter, and neither did the protective arm that he had around Ronda's shoulders. It caused the boss to raise his eyebrows a little in surprise. "Give me a minute here," he ordered Seth, a lot less aggressively than he had spoken to everyone else.

"Come find me outside our locker room?" Seth asked Ronda who nodded her confirmation that she would do so when Hunter was done with her.

"I'm not going to apologise for that," Ronda told Hunter angrily after Seth had walked away.

"Calm down," Hunter said. "I'm not asking you to apologise. Cody was way out of line. I saw what he was doing out there, and I saw the back end of what just went on here. I just want to tell you that I'm going to deal with it. You're not going to have to take that crap from any of the guys. You're doing an excellent job so far."

Feeling adrenaline rushing through her veins as it had been moments before was something that Ronda had not experienced for a long time. It had always been a sensation that she had loved. Now, staring into the eyes of her boss, she made a decision. "Not for much longer I'm not."

"Look, Ronda, you can't just quit over something like this..." Hunter began, heading down the wrong path.

"I'm not talking about quitting," Ronda clarified, cutting him off. "I've not been honest with you, Hunter," she admitted.

"Huh?" the boss asked, confused.

"My neck injury. The injury I told you about when you had me try out. I'm not hurt, Hunter. I didn't lie, I just let you assume the wrong thing. I know that's still wrong, and I'm sorry. My neck is one hundred per cent healed. It has been for a long time. It was up here where the problem was," she tapped her temple with a finger.

"What are you saying to me, Ronda?"

"I'm saying..." Still Ronda found it tough to get the words out. Taking a deep breath helped. "I'm saying that I want to quit being a referee for you, and I want to train to wrestle instead. I want you to get me help with gaining confidence in taking bumps. I need to work past this problem I've got. I know it's going to be hard, but I want to do it." After a second, she added, "Please."

"Let me get this right," Hunter said, shaking his head a little as if to clear it of the insanity that seemed to have set in. "You're telling me that you're not injured, your neck is fine, and you want me to get you help with training to wrestle? That is what you're saying?"

"Yes," Ronda confirmed. "I know wrestling is a lot different to what I've done in the past, but I really want to do it. This is all if you're interested in me wrestling, of course. If not I can continue..."

"How do I know you're not injured?" Hunter cut in, not really thinking the question through before he asked it.

"You already put me through MRI's and how many physical tests," Ronda reminded him. "What did those results tell you?"

"That you were totally fine to be in the ring," Hunter recalled. This was an incredible turn of events. Just looking at Ronda had his imagination running wild. Having her join the roster as a wrestler would be huge for the Divas division, and potentially for WWE as whole. There had been a recent social media movement which had proven to be very popular, calling for the Divas to be given a chance at a bigger role on Raw and Smackdown. The answer, he saw, was standing before him. He could have made the decision even with his brain removed.

"We'll train you," he decided. "We'll have to end this referee angle soon, then we can get you down to Florida. I'll have someone work with you on your, uh, confidence issue. You'll be well looked after, trust me. When you're ready, we'll train you on how to wrestle safely, and if you do well, which I know you will, we'll talk about what we can do with you here on Raw. That's a long way off, but how does that all sound?"

"It sounds great, thank you," Ronda said with a smile. "Hunter?"

"What?"

"I don't want just anyone to train me to bump. That won't work. I want... No, I need, Seth to do it. Is that possible?"

Hunter took a moment to think. Agreeing would mean Seth and Ronda spending time in Florida, which would then mean that Seth was not available for house shows during the week. Have Seth work house shows, or sign Ronda Rousey as a wrestler? It was hardly a difficult choice to make. "Yeah, I can make that happen," he said. "You'll need to work this out with Seth, though. I'm guessing that won't be an issue?"

"I'll have to ask him, but I really doubt it. Seth's an amazing guy. He's done so much for me already. I'm sure he'll help me with this."

"Then we have a plan," Hunter smiled. "I've got to go deal with Cody."

"Thank you, Hunter," Ronda smiled in return, referring to the opportunity in Florida rather than Cody being dealt with. Cody's stupidity and sexism were a long way from her mind as she watched the boss walk away.


	9. Chapter 9

Sometimes life really could be crazy. Sitting in the same restaurant as they had the previous night, at a table very near to the one had the had been at the night before, Ronda found herself just looking across the table at Seth. It was amazing how much had changed for her in the very short time since she had met him. When she had signed with WWE as a referee, she had been overjoyed to have such a huge opportunity. She certainly had not imagined having such a tough time with the memories of her neck injury coming back so strongly. Almost everyone she had spoken to had wanted to know the same thing: "Why aren't you a wrestler, Ronda?" The phrasing of the question had varied slightly from person to person, but it was always the same basic question, and always the same answer about having an old neck injury. It had been way too much to deal with. Putting on a brave face on it and keeping all of her emotions bottled up inside had really been taking a toll on her.

Then Seth had stepped in with his persistence, refusing to stop bringing up the subject. It had been tough not to lose her cool with him and tell him in no uncertain terms to stop talking about it, but there was just something about him, something that made him seem so trustworthy and compassionate that had made her crack and talk to him about everything. The release had worked wonders for her but even then Seth was not done. Although the trip out to those stables and the horse ride was a relatively simple gesture, it was one of the kindest things anyone had ever done for her. Seth was not the kind of guy who pretended to care just to get a girl into bed, she could tell that without doubt. No, he actually did care about her and wanted to help her with her issues. Now she was going to have to ask him for more help, this time with her training because there was no way that she could do it without him.

"Enjoying that?" she asked, grinning at him as he vigorously attacked his meal.

Remembering his manners, Seth waited for his mouth to be empty before saying, "You know it. This place is always amazing, and food is always nicer when it's free."

The goofy smile on his face made Ronda laugh. "It's not free," she pointed out, playing along.

"It is for me," Seth grinned even wider.

"Asshole," Ronda laughed.

"That's my nickname, is it?" Seth pretended to moan bitterly. "Asshole?"

"It can be," Ronda decided, still giggling. "You can be my asshole. Wait, how wrong does that sound?"

Laughing heartily, Seth poured another glass of wine for himself and topped Ronda's off for her. "Thank you. Seth? Something happened earlier, when Hunter showed up and asked you to leave."

"You said you were okay, that it was fine,'" Seth reminded her, immediately concerned.

"It was. I am. I don't mean something bad happened. Just, something happened."

"I don't know what you mean?" Seth asked as he cut some more of his fish into pieces, attention fully on Ronda rather than the task at hand.

"You've helped me a lot, Seth. A hell of a lot. But, in a way, that sexist douche Cody helped me too, not that he meant to of course."

Seth's eyes narrowed slightly. "How did being a prick like that possibly help you? He even put his hands on you. If Roman hadn't held me back, I'd have knocked him out."

Ronda allowed a small smile of acknowledgement. "I appreciate you saying it, but I don't need you to fight for me. If he would have taken that step towards me, I would have seriously hurt him. You guys might be bigger than me, but that would have meant nothing in that hallway. Cody thinks the fact that he's got a dick means a woman can't hurt him. I'd have loved to prove him wrong. Anyway, that's not what I wanted to talk to you about."

"So what is?" Seth asked, pleased that he had managed not to smile. It had not been easy to keep his face impassive as he pictured Ronda taking Cody down with some kind of Judo throw and beating the crap out of him.

There was a pause while Ronda ate some of her chicken breast, the only thing she seemed to order on a night out. "Getting so angry at Cody made me feel so... I don't know. Alive is the only way I guess I can put it," she decided. "I've always been that way, whether it was a boxing match, whether it was the Olympics, whatever. I always got this crazy adrenaline rush, and I loved it. Tonight was the first time I've felt that since... what happened. So I..."

"You should say it, not avoid it," Seth cut in gently.

"Fine, since I broke my neck." Ronda said, barely pausing. "So, Hunter asked me if I was okay and said something about me being a great referee. I told him that I wouldn't be a great referee for much longer because I want to quit and train to wrestle instead."

"Oh," Seth breathed in surprise. "You just came out and told him? I thought you wanted to take time to talk to your parents and to think things through before you made a definite decision?"

"By the time that thing with Cody was done I had decided," Ronda said firmly. "I want to be out there in the ring, and not as a referee. I want to be in there competing. I want to feel that rush every time I go out there. I want all of those people cheering or booing me. I want to be the best Divas Champion there's ever been. I want to make all that happen. Hunter said he will send me to Florida so that I can train to wrestle safely, and he will get me some help to move past the fact that I broke my neck." Very deliberately, Ronda had not avoided saying it that time. Confidence was what she needed, and refusing to mention the injury in conversation was certainly not a sign of confidence.

"That's great," Seth beamed. "That's really great. I'm so pleased for you."

"There is one thing, though." Ronda said, feeling a little nervous. While she was confident that Seth would be happy to help with her training, until he actually said it there was still that nagging doubt. "I know I need to learn to take bumps. I need someone to build my confidence up, and I need that person to throw me around a ring like I'm in a match. I need to trust that person, because I need to be sure that I won't freak out. I need you to train me, Seth, please?"

As he had listened to the last few sentences Seth had known where the conversation was going. His answer was already prepared. Looking across the table, he did not see a woman he was dating, and certainly not a work colleague. What he saw in that moment was a woman who trusted him; a woman he loved. He knew it was too soon to say so, but he felt it nonetheless. "Of course I'll train you," he said gently. "We'll get you past this neck injury and, oh lord, you're going to be such a star in that Divas division."

Ronda surprised him by setting down her knife and fork and taking his hand. She squeezed it and smiled. "Thank you. This means so much to me."

"I know, I can tell what it means to you. I'm here for you on this, and on anything else," Seth promised her.

There was no response from Ronda, but as they looked into each other's eyes and held hands they did not need to communicate what they were thinking verbally. They had both just decided to make a serious go of this thing. This was now a relationship. "I don't feel very hungry any more," Ronda said softly, feeling a very different kind of appetite threatening to overwhelm her.

"Neither do I," Seth said, finally taking his hand back from Ronda and using it to signal to a server.

A few minutes later, Ronda had used her card to pay for both of their meals, after rejecting Seth's offer to pay himself, despite what was agreed earlier. The server wished them a good night and they stood to leave. "I wasn't really going to pay you know," Seth teased as he took Ronda's hand. He grinned even before he got the response which he knew was coming.

"Asshole," Ronda said, trying and failing not to laugh at the absurdity of calling someone an asshole in an affectionate way.

Seth grinned for the same reason as they walked out of the restaurant. Five minutes later, they were outside of Ronda's room - the same room where so many tears had been shed the night before. Now, however, the mood was a lot different. Ronda unlocked and opened the door, then turned around in the doorway.

"Well, thank you for a lovely evening. Good night," she teased.

"It's not over yet," Seth smirked, enjoying the teasing, but also feeling his balls aching.

"It's not?" Ronda asked innocently.

"No," Seth said firmly, starting to playfully push Ronda into the room. Going along with it, Ronda used all of her strength to try and stop him, actually surprising Seth with how strong she was.

"Are you getting physical with me, Seth Rollins?"

"Yes."

With that, Seth kissed Ronda passionately and they both moved inside the room. Ronda moaned with pleasure as Seth kicked the door closed.

* * *

Waiting for a departure gate to be announced at an airport was one of the most boring, and frequent things about life with WWE. This time, however, Seth had enough to keep his mind busy, number one being thinking back to the incredible sex that he and Ronda had enjoyed both the previous night and again that morning. He had never been with a powerful woman like Ronda before. He had found it a different but incredible experience.

"Hey, come here," Ronda said from beside him, bringing him out of his thoughts. Turning to look at her, he saw that she had her phone in her hand and wanted to take a selfie with him. He smiled for the picture, then Ronda looked at it on her phone. "Awww, it's a really nice one," she said happily.

"Let me see it," Seth smiled, reaching his hand out for the phone.

"No way," Ronda giggled. "You'll see it in a minute."

Moments later Seth's phone chirped its notification alert. He touched the notification, bringing up the Instagram and the picture that Ronda had uploaded. She was right, it was a nice picture, but what made him smile was the caption underneath which read: _I love this guy. _On reflection, he considered the words to be well chosen. The most that could happen was that people could begin to speculate if Seth Rollins and Ronda Rousey were in a relationship, as the words could also mean that he and Ronda had become close friends. Both of them knew the truth, of course.

"That's very sweet," Seth said, leaning in for a kiss. It felt great that Ronda had written the word love, but it was too early to actually say it.

Ten minutes later, Seth's phone rang. He saw that it was a FaceTime call from Roman. Again, he had missed Dean and Roman at breakfast as he and Ronda had agreed to wait until they got down to Florida to hit the gym together. Thinking about the missed time with his brothers made Seth feel guilty. He could not keep avoiding them like that, new relationship or not. Maybe they could all go for a meal the following Monday after Raw? Yes, he decided, that would be a good idea. "It's Roman, I'm going to take it," he announced.

"Of course," Ronda smiled. "I need to call mom and tell her I'm not coming home anyway."

Seth stood and walked away from where he had been sitting, over to a quieter part of the waiting area as he answered the call, seeing both Roman and Dean appear on the screen. "Hey guys."

"Hey, bro," Roman greeted. "Where are you?"

"I'm at the airport already. Sorry I missed you again this morning."

"You with anyone?" Dean asked. Seth picked up on something in his close friend's tone that told him that he was not the only one thinking that he had not been spending enough time with his second family recently.

"Ronda's here. We're heading out to Florida."

"You're with Ronda?" Dean asked, sounding disappointed. Seth felt a little hurt by that. Surely the guys could cut him a little slack? "He's with Ronda," Dean said to Roman.

"Yeah we knew that, remember?" Roman said. Seth felt as confused as Dean looked, having no clue what was going on.

"We did?" Dean asked.

"Yeah, we saw it Instagram," Roman said patiently.

"Oh yeah," Dean supposedly recalled as a grin broke out on his face. "Ronda said she loves him," he announced incredibly patronisingly. "Ain't that just the sweetest thing?" Now Seth realised that this whole call had been a wind up from the start. The guys had called him to rib him about the picture and its caption.

"Awww," Roman joined in, trying not to laugh. "Ronda loves little Seth. The girl's going to start carrying him around in her purse."

"Fuck off, guys," Seth griped, but he could not keep a straight face as he said it. Dean had got him good by playing offended. All three men spent a long moment laughing and now rather than feeling guilty Seth felt great. Of course he knew that the guys would understand him spending his time with Ronda at the moment, they were both in relationships and had been where he was right now themselves.

Over the next few minutes, Seth floated the suggestion of the meal for the following Monday night and Roman and Dean agreed that it was a good idea. Seth and Roman had another good laugh at Dean, who, in their opinion, would be the one showing up on a leash if Renee was around. The conversation moved on to Seth telling the story of why he was going to Florida with Ronda, and after both Roman and Dean had told him to wish her good luck from them, they ended the call. It was good timing because the departure gate for Seth's flight had just been announced.

* * *

"Okay," Seth said, holding the ring ropes apart for Ronda to follow him into the ring. "The first thing they usually teach us is how to hit the ropes properly. It's actually a lot harder than it looks."

"This place is amazing." Ronda looked around the WWE Performance Center, with its seven training rings and various other state of the art facilities. It was late afternoon on the day that she and Seth had arrived in Orlando, but she had not wanted to sleep on the fact that her first session awaited her, preferring instead to get right on with it at the first opportunity. When they had arrived in the building, they had learned that Hunter had called ahead and ordered that Seth Rollins and Ronda Rousey were to be given one of the training rings to use any time they desired, and they were to be left alone while they were there. No one questioned direct orders like that from the boss.

Ronda returned her full attention to Seth. "Sorry, I'm listening. Hitting the ropes?"

"That's usually what they do first," Seth nodded. "But you don't need me for that. Anyone can show you that. What you need me to do is show you how to take moves safely. And more importantly you need me to... Well, you need me to do some simple moves on you to give you some confidence, right?"

"Right," Ronda nodded, starting to feel nervous and hating herself for it. This was why it was so important that it was Seth who standing in front of her. If it was anyone else, she would likely have bailed by now.

"Okay, well, the simplest bump you can take is from being knocked down with a punch. Remember, you can only use open handed punches. Hell, I don't need to tell you this, you've been a referee for how long, you've seen how we sell punches. I guess I'll go over it anyway. Throw a punch at me and watch how I throw myself down and how I take the fall on my entire back. You've got to really throw yourself back to make it look good."

Ronda threw the lamest looking punch ever. Rather than sell it, Seth shook his head. "Nope, I said throw a punch. Hit me." He half expected this to start becoming at lot more difficult than he had first imagined, wondering if Ronda might say that she was unwilling to swing at him. But no, she did not need telling twice, smacking him straight in the jaw with her open fist.

"Good," he said from his new position lying on the canvas a second later. "Did you see how I did that?"

"Yeah," Ronda nodded. Of course, she had seen it hundreds of times in matches before, but Seth was doing the right thing. Square one was where she needed to start. Luckily, acting like a know it all when she really did not know much was not her style. What she did know was what was coming next, and she felt her stomach knotting up at the prospect.

"Now you," Seth said. "I'm not going to punch you, obviously, but throw yourself back just how I did."

Ronda wanted to do it, but her legs would not move, would not propel her backwards. Her nerves would not let them do it. It was easy for Seth to see the conflict that was going on inside her head at that moment. The logical part of her mind was telling her that there was no way to injure herself simply by throwing herself to the canvas, and that her neck was fully healed, but there was another part that insisted on planting that seed of doubt and asking, "What if?"

"Look at me," Seth said gently, walking over and putting a reassuring hand on her shoulder. "This is why we're here, why I'm here. You're not going to get hurt, okay? I promise. Remember Bobby, the horse? You were afraid until you got on him, but then you realised that you were fine. Eventually, you even enjoyed it. This will be the same. By this time Friday you'll be throwing me around the ring like I'm Cody Rhodes."

He was delighted when a smile appeared on Ronda's face. "It's not throwing you around that troubles me," she clarified.

"I know," Seth smiled back. "Okay, here we go. This time is going to be the toughest. It's all downhill from here. Suck it up and do it, when you're ready."

There was no way to delay any longer. Ronda knew that there were two choices in front of her: do this, or quit. She told herself that she was no quitter. Then, fighting off the fear as best she could, she threw herself backwards onto the mat as possible, just as Seth had shown her moments before. Lying on the mat and looking up at the building's lights, she felt relief washing over her to such an extent that tears stung her eyes. She was unhurt.

"You okay?" Seth asked, standing over her and offering a hand to help her up.

Ronda took his hand and stood. "I'm okay," she said, smiling. "I'm fine. I'm pathetic though, right? Being afraid to do that?"

Seth could see that she was a little overcome with emotion, so he gently pulled her into an embrace. "No," he told her quietly. "You're not pathetic. You're very brave to be here doing this. Very brave," he repeated.

"Thank you," Ronda said softly. His words meant so much to her.

After holding her for a moment longer, Seth pulled away. "Right, again," he ordered and Ronda slammed herself to the canvas, this time with a lot less hesitation.

"Good. Up you get. Do it again."


	10. Chapter 10

_Author's note: For those who have not read it yet, I recommend reading my one shot Opposite Extremes before reading this chapter._

* * *

**_Royal Rumble 2015_**

The backstage areas were always a chaotic place to be before a WWE pay per view event, none more so than the Royal Rumble. Although it was frantic, this was one of the favourite nights of the year for Hunter Helmsley. Next on his extensive list of things to do was to go over the ending of the WWE title match with those involved. To that end, he had just dispatched runners to bring Brock Lesnar, John Cena, Seth Rollins, Ronda Rousey and a guy called Ian, who had been hired as an extra for a very specific reason, to his office so that he could put them all in the picture.

"I'm still not happy about this," Stephanie McMahon griped at her husband, sitting on a couch against one wall of the office, sipping at a cup of coffee.

"Really?" Hunter sighed from behind his desk, looking over at his wife. "You're still on this Ronda thing?"

"It's not just me," Stephanie reminded him. "Most of the divas are pissed off too. You sign her as a referee and less than a month later you have her in training for a place on the roster. No NXT, no anything. It's not right, and I don't like it. She played you. Not only did she play you, after tonight we haven't got a female referee again which was what I wanted to start with. So yes, I'm 'still on this Ronda thing.'

Hunter already knew that there was heat on Ronda with some of the other Divas for how quickly she was being put onto the main roster, but he was not going to change his mind. Ronda Rousey was the real deal and just what he needed to satisfy the large number of fans who wanted Divas to be given a chance. In a couple of months or so, when Ronda had ironically been trained _not _to hurt people, he could see her being one of the companies biggest stars, let alone being a boost for the Divas division. If people had a problem with that, even his wife, then that was tough luck for them. He had a company to run and increasingly impatient Chairman to satisfy. In reality, Vince's supposed step back had not really been a step back so much as a change from giving the orders himself to giving Hunter orders about what orders he should be giving out himself. The old man sure could be tough to work for at times.

"I've been over this with you before," Hunter reminded his wife, not having the time or patience for an argument. "Ronda didn't play anyone. She had a mental problem with her neck injury, which she's now working on in training with Rollins. When she's trained up, she's going to be a real star for us. Period."

The discussion may have been ended, but Hunter could see his wife boiling away in silence on the couch. She had some strange character traits which she had picked up from her father, and taking an unnatural dislike to certain people was one of them. Ronda Rousey was marked in Stephanie's book. Over the next few minutes, all of the people who had been summoned arrived in the office. When they were all in attendance, Hunter ran over what the finish of the title match was going to be and everyone aside from Stephanie, who remained seated on the couch, shared a laugh at Ian's appearance, including Ian himself.

Hunter brought the brief meeting to an end, but asked Seth and Ronda to stay behind. "How's it going down in Orlando?" he asked when the office's population was reduced to four.

"Great," Seth announced proudly. "Ronda's coming along real quick. It's only been a couple weeks, but I think we're pretty much past the neck injury, right?" he asked his girlfriend, deliberately avoiding the use of his current chosen term of affection at the end of the question. He knew that Ronda would not want to be called babe in front of the boss.

"Yeah, it's going better than I could have hoped for," Ronda smiled. Out of the corner of his eye, Hunter saw his wife shaking her head as Ronda continued. "I'm not really feeling nervous all that much about bumps now, so maybe I'll do another week with Seth, if that's okay? Then I can work with someone else. I know you need him back on the house shows."

"That's fine," Hunter smiled, impressed with Ronda's professional attitude. "I'm glad it's working out. You'll get all the training you need down there. I've spoken to some of the guys, and they think they can have you ready to go in around two months. Right, that's all," he said, dismissing them.

Seth and Ronda said their goodbyes and left the office. "What's Steph's problem?" Ronda asked as they walked along the hallway. "She looked like we had a bad smell following us around."

"I don't know," Seth shrugged. "She's a McMahon. They're a strange family. You'll learn that quickly enough. Don't get me wrong, they've been good to me, but yeah, they can be strange at times."

"Well, I'm done as a referee from tonight," Ronda sighed. "Still, more time to focus on training," she said, quickly moving on. "It sucks that we won't see much of each other, but I guess it can't be helped."

"It does get hard," Seth admitted. "Still, it's only a couple months. It'll go quicker than it sounds. At least you actually work here, so soon enough we'll be able to travel a lot together. We'll still get an odd day here and there to spend together now."

"We'd better make use of tonight then, while we can," Ronda said softly as they reached the locker room belonging to the three former Shield members.

"I'll hold you to that," Seth grinned, planting a kiss on her lips before pushing the locker room door open and leading Ronda inside.

* * *

An F5 through the Spanish commentary table took care of John Cena, as far as the ending of the triple threat match for the WWE title was concerned. The fans were really into it, even cheering for Seth, who was putting on one of the best performances of his career. This was only emphasised even further by Seth breaking out his Phoenix Splash from the top rope a minute later, hitting Lesnar with it and getting a really close near fall.

In the storyline, it was still not clear if Ronda was helping Seth, although most people seemed to expect her to in this match, especially with the now quite famous Instagram picture taken into consideration. "Come on!" Seth could be heard complaining frustratedly to Ronda as she only got a two count on Lesnar following the impressive move from the top rope.

Determined to put an end to the match, Seth lined up a curb stomp on Lesnar, who was slowly trying to get up from the canvas. But as Seth ran in, it became apparent that Lesnar had been setting a trap. Suddenly, Seth was up on Lesnar's shoulders and in position for an F5.

Panicking, Seth managed to wriggle off Lesnar's shoulders and scurry out of the ring under the bottom rope in front of the commentary tables. Seeing that Lesnar intended to come after him, Seth took what seemed to be his only option and crawled under the ring. Lesnar was only seconds behind him. He reached under the ring, yanking Seth back out from under the ring viciously by the ankle.

With Cena still down, Lesnar wanted to end the match quickly, so he rolled Seth into the ring under the bottom rope and climbed in after him. Wasting no time, he got Seth up on his shoulders and hit him with an F5. The crowd cheered loudly as their only desired outcome seemed to be for Cena not to win. "Ball game!" JBL announced as Lesnar rolled Rollins over and made a cover.

The crowd joined in with Ronda's count. "One! Two!" As she raised her hand to make the third count, she froze in place for a moment. Immediately, the crowd launched into boos, sensing conspiracy.

"I knew it!" Cole yelled. "Rousey sold out! That was easily three, but she stopped counting!"

"Wait a minute," Jerry Lawler cut in. "What's she saying?"

Ronda was now backing away from the furious Lesnar, pointing repeatedly at Seth as he lay flat on his back and yelling something to Lesnar to accompany her hand gestures, with which she was indicating that she couldn't complete the count. Paul Heyman also yelled protests into the ring from the outside. Then the noise from the crowd rose.

"What the hell?" Michael Cole yelled incredulously as a second Seth Rollins appeared in the ring, running up behind Lesnar. The second, and real, Rollins pulled Lesnar down and rolled him up, using a fistfull of his trunks in the process. "Rollins has the tights!" Cole protested.

Once more the crowd counted along. "One! Two! Three!" But Lesnar had in fact got a shoulder up at two, the crowd fooled again by Ronda's counting style.

"Two!" Cole announced. "Two and only two! There's a guy who looks like Seth Rollins in the ring, and it nearly cost Lesnar his title!"

Unable to believe that it was only a two count, Seth tore at his own hair as he stood and raged at Ronda. "What are you doing? What are you doing, huh? That was three."

Ronda looked a little apologetic, but appeared to be saying that there was nothing she could do because Lesnar got a shoulder up. Seth had a much bigger problem behind him. Lesnar had of course not been hurt by the roll up pin, and was now standing behind Seth. Giving up on the argument with Ronda, Seth turned around and walked right into Lesnar who hit another F5, this time definitely on the real Rollins. The champion rolled Seth over and made a cover.

"Is Rousey going to count?" Cole demanded. Looking very reluctant, and getting into position slower than usual, Ronda did just that, signalling almost angrily to the timekeeper to ring the bell after getting a three count. With that she left the ring, shaking her head and not bothering to raise the hand of the winner or present him with the title.

Lesnar and Heyman celebrated for a couple of minutes in the ring. When they headed for the back, medics came in the opposite direction to attend to the remains of Cena and the fake Rollins. The real Seth managed to get to his feet and now that the match, and with it kayfabe to an extent, was over, the crowd gave him a standing ovation for his outstanding performance.

Seth heard Lesnar's music stop playing and saw an advertisement for the WWE network appear on the big screen. Knowing that he was no longer on camera, he was glad to have the chance to do something which was technically breaking kayfabe. The previous Monday night, he had been out for a meal with Ronda, Roman, Dean and Renee when they had met a teenage girl named Maggie who was a huge fan of his. Maggie and her mother had been run down by a drunk driver a year before, costing Maggie both of her legs and her mother her life. Seth had been so moved by Maggie's story that he had arranged for her and her father, Martin to be at ringside for tonight's event.

Seth walked around to where Maggie and Martin were and leaned over the barrier, offering a her hug and receiving a very tight one in return as he asked, "Enjoying the show?"

"Yeah!" Maggie enthused. "You were awesome, Seth. You really were."

"Lesnar was just a bit better," Seth laughed, releasing the hug.

"Never," Maggie laughed. "Thank you so much for this. I'll never forget it."

"My pleasure, enjoy the Rumble." With that and a slap on Martin's shoulder Seth headed for the back.

* * *

Handshakes and hugs were exchanged when Seth returned to the locker room. Both Roman and Dean congratulated him sincerely on his performance. Seth wanted to get his post match shower out of the way as soon as he could so that he could watch as much of the Royal Rumble as possible. Roman and Dean both had reasonably late entry numbers, so he knew that he would not miss out on seeing them, and would certainly see Roman's moment of glory. He was passing on his good luck wishes when there was a knock at the door.

"Come in, babe," Seth yelled, assuming it was Ronda at the door, having changed out of her referee attire.

"I don't think I've been called babe before," a familiar voice laughed as the door opened. In walked The Rock. Understandably, the first man he went to was Roman. The two men were related, and the reason The Rock was there was to help Roman win the Rumble match.

It was not the first time that Seth and Dean had met Dwayne Johnson, so when they exchanged handshakes in turn there was a genuine warmth to them. The four men chatted for a few minutes before Ronda's voice came from the open doorway. "Okay to come in?"

"Yeah," Seth smiled. "Rock, meet Ronda Rousey."

"Dwayne, but please, call me Rock," Dwayne smiled as he shook Ronda's hand. "It feels strange to be called anything else around here."

"Rock it is," Ronda smiled, feeling a little star struck.

"I hear you're training to join the roster?" Dwayne asked.

"That's right," Ronda confirmed. "I can't wait."

"You'll do great," Dwayne assured her. "Especially with this guy training you." He looked at Seth. "You're going to be champ one day, man. You were great out there."

"Thanks man, that means a lot," Seth replied honestly. "Hopefully they let me cash this thing in soon," he added, gesturing to his Money in the Bank briefcase which was sitting on the bench. "Listen guys, I want to get my shower out of the way so I can catch the Rumble. I'll see you afterwards, okay? Rome, enjoy this bro. You deserve it." Seth headed for the showers and Dean, Roman and Dwayne headed off to join everyone else who was involved in the Rumble match.

* * *

Watching on a monitor in the locker room with Ronda sitting beside him, Seth knew that the night was not going to work out as he had hoped for Roman because as soon as his music hit at entrant number nineteen, Roman, who was a face character which should have meant that he was greeted with cheers, instead was met by very loud eruption of boos.

"What's going on?" Ronda asked, turning to Seth with a look of confusion on her face.

"Something bad," Seth mumbled.

* * *

Seth had known that the reaction to the finish was going to be bad, but when the match came to a false end, with it appearing that Roman had won, he could never have imagined what would come next. There was another competitor still in the match, lying on the floor outside. The crowd began to realise this and started a chant, "We want Rusev." For Rusev, the biggest heel in the company, to be cheered over Roman was a disaster for him. Even The Rock coming out in support of Roman had not made them get behind him.

"They're fucking murdering him," Seth complained angrily.

Ronda watched on in a shocked silence as Roman eliminated Rusev and won the match, trying to celebrate his huge moment, only receiving boos and abuse in response. She had not known Roman long, but she could tell that he was a great guy and did not deserve this at all. There seemed to be no logic to all of the hate, that was the worst part.

"We need to go," Seth announced, snapping out of his shocked, almost trance-like state and heading for the door. "We need to be there when he comes through the curtain."

It only took a couple of minutes for them to reach Gorilla, but by that time Roman and The Rock were already backstage. There was some kind of argument going on between The Rock and Vince McMahon, while Roman had been pulled aside by Hunter. Dean was also there, waiting to speak to his brother.

"I don't fucking believe this," Seth said quietly as he approached Dean.

"Fucking bullshit, man," Dean agreed.

Roman's discussion with the boss proved to be a brief one, and he walked over to his two closest friends, forcing a smile. "I guess they could always turn me heel," he joked weakly.

As the three men began talking, Ronda stood nearby, momentarily forgotten about. She found herself taking out her phone and loading up Twitter to see what the reaction was like there to Roman's victory, hoping that it was only the the live crowd which had turned on him. "Oh God," she breathed to herself. The crucifixion of Roman was only just starting. A hashtag was starting to trend, urging everyone to cancel the WWE Network. In the space of an hour, her new friend's career had suffered a devastating blow rather than the incredible push that he had been so happy about. She knew a lot about what it felt like to feel depressed and to put a brave face on it for the benefit of other people, and she could see that Roman was doing it now, trying to suck it up for his brothers. It was an understandable thing to do, but it was also the wrong thing to do.

"Guys, can I have a minute?" she asked Seth and Dean, walking over to the three men.

Seth and Dean backed away to allow Ronda the privacy she had asked for, sharing a look of confusion as she started talking quietly to Roman, so that he was the only one who could hear her. A full minute went by with Ronda speaking. The two other men could tell that she was clearly adamant that Roman needed to listen to her, and he was listening, nodding several times. The conversation ended and Ronda and Roman walked over towards Seth and Dean.

"You okay?" Dean asked Roman, knowing that it was a stupid question, but not knowing what else to say.

"Yeah," Roman smiled, this one looking slightly less forced. "I might have lost my push tonight, but I gained a sister. I know what's more important."

All four of them headed towards the locker room. Dean and Roman continued talking to each other as Seth whispered to Ronda, "What did you say to him?"

"I told him not to put a brave face on it and be as stupid as I was for a long time," Ronda replied just as quietly. I told him he can talk to me any time he wants, even though he has you guys. And I told him that he and I are going to have an hour in the gym first thing tomorrow. I want to help him work out all of that anger."

"Thank you," Seth said. It meant a lot to him that Ronda would step up in support of his brother as she had. "It means a lot to me that you would do that."

"I didn't do it for you," Ronda told him as she took his hand. "I did it for him. Albeit for different reasons, I've been where he's about to go."


	11. Chapter 11

A huge fist pounded into a black punch bag, the sound of the impact filling the almost empty gym. Roman and Ronda were among the earliest arrivals of the day.

"Keep going," Ronda ordered as she held the bag for him. Again the sweat-soaked Roman hammered his fist in the bag as hard as he could. He had totally lost track of how long he had been in the gym with Ronda, and of how many times she had insisted that he keep going, beating the crap out of this punch bag. One thing was for sure: it was helping.

What should have been the greatest moment of his career to date had been ruined by the fans, who had almost unanimously turned on him like a pack of wolves. It had not only been the fans in the arena at the Royal Rumble, either. Fans around the world had followed their example and had made a hashtag on Twitter urging people to cancel the WWE Network the most popular trend in the world. Now, many hours later, it as still the number one trend by a huge margin. It was an utter disaster as far as both he and WWE were concerned. The company would be losing money hand over fist, and he expected to find out when he reported for Raw that night that he was going to lose his main event spot at Wrestlemania as a result. He could just picture Hunter and Vince sitting in some office or hotel suite raging about how much of a mistake they had made in showing faith in Roman Reigns.

At least Ronda had made him come down to the gym first thing in the morning with her and work out his frustrations, rather than doing what he would otherwise have done, which was to keep it all bottled up inside and let it eat away at him all day. Sure, he had talked to his wife about it when he had gotten back to the hotel the previous night and she had been supportive, but talking over a phone could only do so much. It was one of the biggest down sides to being married to someone who did not work for WWE.

"Thanks for this Ronda," he said a few minutes later when he stopped striking the bag. "You were right, I did need to do this. I feel... I can't say better, but yeah, it's helped."

"Keep going," Ronda ordered, stern faced. "We're not done here."

"No, we're done," Roman insisted, running a hand through the mess that was his hair. "It's as good as it's going to get. Thank you, again. I'm glad we did it."

"You're welcome," Ronda nodded slightly. "Like I said, if you need to talk, you know where I am. I know you're married and you're very close to Seth and Dean, so you have people you'd prefer to turn to, but the offer is there."

She was a little surprised when Roman gently pulled her into a brief hug. "I meant what I said last night," he insisted and then released the hug. "You stepped up when you saw that I needed help last night. Seth and Dean are like brothers to me, and you're a sister now, too."

It meant a lot to Ronda for her to be effectively adopted into her boyfriend's second family, but there was still a concern. "I don't know if Dean sees it that way," she said as she handed Roman a bottle of water, which he immediately opened and drained.

"Trust me, Dean won't see it any differently," Roman assured her. "He might seem like he's got a screw loose... Hell, he has got a screw loose, but he's one of the good guys, and in his own way, he looks out for Seth and I just as much as we look out for him. Neither he nor I could be happier to see you and Seth together. I mean that."

"Thank you," Ronda smiled warmly as she opened and sipped from a bottle of water of her own. With that, the two of them headed towards the gym's exit. There was still plenty of time to shower and still make it to the hotel's restaurant in time for breakfast.

* * *

"You wanted to push Reigns, not me," Hunter Helmsley reminded his father-in-law one more time, later that night in his office at the arena where Raw was taking place. "I said this might happen, but you insisted you wanted him to win the Rumble. I've put together what I think is as much of a damage limitation exercise as we can hope for, and it doesn't involve taking the 'Mania main event off Reigns either. So, how about you back me instead of arguing? We don't want another 'Mania ending getting booed out of the arena, do we? We had that at twenty nine when Cena beat Rock."

"Fine," Vince snapped angrily. "I'll tell you what I'll do. You sit there talking like you want to take over the booking completely from me? That's exactly what you're going to do. You're going to book Wrestlemania, all of it. Let's see what you can really do."

"Fine," Hunter echoed, standing up from behind his desk. "I'll book it, and I'll make it even better than last year's."

"Fine," Vince repeated again, not realising how childish they both sounded. "I'll leave you to it then, shall I?" With that he stormed out of the office, slamming the door hard behind him.

"Well, that went well," Stephanie sighed. She was standing against the wall near the door. "Now what?"

"Now I start fixing this disaster," Hunter said with determination. "And I already know how I'm going to do it."

"What are you going to do with the main event?" Stephanie asked, referring to Wrestlemania. A smile slowly appeared on her face as she studied her husband. "I see that look on your face. I know when you've got a good idea."

"How would you like a vacation?" Hunter smiled back at her, sitting back down on the comfortable chair behind his desk.

"Huh?" Stephanie asked, narrowing her eyes slightly.

"After 'Mania. You and I should take a break for a few weeks. The public might think that when we're not on the show we're not here, but really, when was the last time we took a long vacation? Me, you and the girls, all of us should get away for a few weeks. What do you say?"

"It sounds great," Stephanie smiled. "Of course it does, but if we're not on the show, who's supposedly going to run the place? And how are The Authority going to disappear this time? We already did the firing angle at Survivor Series and the ratings tanked right away, so we had to come back ahead of schedule. What's your idea?"

"Come here," Hunter said, now working away on his laptop as Stephanie walked around to stand behind him. "I don't know who will play the part of running the show. I'll probably have to write a GM again, and I don't mean some stupid laptop gimmick either." Stephanie put an arm around his huge shoulders and leaned down to look at the laptop just as he pulled up a picture. "But what I do know is, that these guys are going to take out The Authority."

There was no response for a moment as Stephanie looked at the picture. "No," she insisted, standing back upright and putting her hands on her hips. "No, Hunter. What are you trying to do to me?"

"Like it or not, honey," Hunter gestured at the picture. "These are going to be the new faces of WWE."

* * *

Now that she was not required as a referee, Ronda had no real purpose to be at the arena for Raw, but she was of course allowed backstage as she was a WWE employee. When Seth, Roman and Dean were changed into their ring gear, Seth had found Ronda in catering and she had returned with him to the locker room. The four of them had already eaten lunch together at a local restaurant, and everyone had been pleased to see that Roman was not a total mess. He had not been his usual self, but he had not been too far from it, which was as much as they could realistically have hoped for given that the cancel WWE Network hashtag was still the top trend in the world, and countless users were spewing hate of all kinds towards him. It was an unprecedented situation. The atmosphere backstage was tense, the usual hive of conversation and laughter replaced by a much more subdued feeling. Even when the four of them were back together in the locker room, the atmosphere was different from how it had been over lunch, largely because they were all awaiting the inevitable: the summons for Roman to go to Hunter's office for the verdict on what was going to happen next, and also what the status of the Wrestlemania main event was. Would they take his main event match match away from Roman?

With the conversation leaving something to be desired, Ronda found herself idly checking her social media on her phone. When she checked her Instagram, she saw that among the usual crap that people insisted on tagging her in, there was an upload of an amazing piece of work that someone had drawn. The pencil drawing was of Ronda's face, neck and shoulders, wearing a referee shirt. Her facial expression was portrayed as if she was literally growling at whoever she was giving an order to in some imaginary match. The artist had made an incredible job of turning the other half of her face into that of a cat, complete with the teeth and whiskers. It looked very fearsome indeed. The quality of the drawing was like nothing Ronda had seen before. Intrigued, she brought up the profile of the user who had sent it to her. "Seth," she said, surprised by what she saw. "Is that who I think it is?"

Seth looked at the phone's screen as Ronda held it out towards him. He recognised the smiling face on the profile picture. "Hey, that's Maggie," he grinned.

"I thought so. Look what she sent to me." Ronda pulled up the amazing drawing and showed Seth the phone again.

"Wow," Seth mumbled, taking the phone so he could study the drawing in more detail. "That's amazing. Damn, she's good." Then he read out the message underneath. "I was so overwhelmed meeting Seth and the guys last week that I didn't really say what an honour it was to meet you, Ronda, so I drew this for you. I hope you like it?" He ended by saying, "She's put a hashtag: Gattina. What does Gattina mean?"

"I don't know," Ronda said as she took her phone back. Roman and Dean asked to see the picture that Maggie had drawn and they were equally impressed with it.

While Ronda had been showing each of them in turn, Seth had looked up the strange word on his own phone. "Gattina is Italian for little cat," he announced. "I'm not so sure about the little part, but I do like it. Gattina," he repeated to himself quietly.

"You're going to start calling me that now, aren't you?" Ronda smiled as she sat back down beside him.

"You can't complain," Seth chuckled, "Your nickname for me is asshole."

"That figures," Dean quipped. "I couldn't have thought of a better one, actually. I might use it for you myself."

"Oh, great," Seth feigned being miserable. "Now I'm going to have all three of you calling me asshole."

"For good reason," Roman grinned, playing along.

Only a few minutes later, the expected knock arrived on the door. A runner responded to Dean's yell of acknowledgment and opened the door. "Triple H is asking for you to come to the production office please, right away. All of you," he clarified. It was a surprise that all four of them were required, but they knew that there was no point in questioning the runner, therefore they headed off to the production office, exchanging confused glances with each other along the way.

"What does Hunter want me for?" Ronda asked Seth quietly as they walked along the hallway, trailing slightly behind Roman and Dean, who were having their own quiet conversation.

Seth gave the obvious answer with a shrug. "No idea. I don't even know what he wants me for."

A couple of minutes later, Roman knocked on the office door and they were invited to enter. None of them could have imagined what they were about to hear.

* * *

_**Saturday March 28th 2015**_

The WWE Hall of Fame ceremony was being held the night before Wrestlemania. For Seth and Ronda, it was the first time that they would be in front of an arena full of WWE fans as a couple, as well as being filmed on the red carpet for the WWE Network. Their relationship had gradually became public knowledge over the two months they had been together, but it still felt good to finally appear at an event together. When they walked through the curtain into the arena at the SAP Center in San Jose, they immediately heard fans calling to them from the first few rows of the nearby seating.

"Come on, let's go give them a few pictures," Ronda urged excitedly.

"We're not supposed to do that," Seth reminded her.

"Oh, who cares?" Ronda asked. "Look at Brie and Daniel over there, they're doing it." That settled the matter. Seth and Ronda walked over the group of eager fans and posed for pictures, Ronda's arm linked with Seth's.

"You look stunning," Seth whispered to her when they were done and heading for their seats, contemplating her incredible figure in the dark red dress that she had bought especially for the occasion.

"You're not so bad yourself, asshole," Ronda chuckled, after making sure no one else was listening. Her man having the affectionate nickname asshole would be a tough one to explain.

"Hey, there's Hunter, Steph and the girls." Seth gestured as they neared their seats.

Hunter saw them approaching and greeted them in turn, first with a handshake for Seth and then a peck on the cheek for Ronda. He spent a brief moment asking Ronda if she was enjoying her first Wrestlemania week so far, even though she had not been directly involved in it. He then made his excuses to both of them and then his wife, saying that he had to get backstage.

"Say hi to Seth Rollins," Stephanie urged her three daughters who all did so excitedly. "We need to go sit down," Stephanie smiled at Seth. "Ronda," she nodded, the smile disappearing from her face before she turned to leave.

Seth had not noticed the change in expression as he was attempting to locate where his and Ronda's seats were, but Ronda definitely had noticed it, and it confirmed what she had suspected for some time. "That bitch has got some kind of problem with me," she hissed quietly.

"Huh?" Seth mumbled back, taking Ronda's hand and leading her towards their seats.

"Stephanie," Ronda hissed once more. "She just looked at me like a piece of dog shit she'd stepped on. What the hell is her problem?"

Seth turned to look at her and saw a look on her face that he had not seen often since meeting her. Not many women had the kind of 'I'm pissed off' expression that Ronda had. "Calm down," he urged. "I don't know what her problem is, but we're here to enjoy the night. Just forget it. It's not like she runs the place, is it?"

"No, she can stick to running her fucking Twitter account for a living," Ronda growled sarcastically as they took their seats. "If she gives me that look again, I'll soon wipe it off her face for her."

It was fairly obvious to Seth that being Chief Brand Officer for WWE meant a lot more than running a Twitter account, but Ronda's disrespectful sarcasm made him laugh. "Chill," he grinned. "This isn't the time for Gattina to make an appearance. Like I just said, forget it. Her and Hunter are out of here for a few weeks anyway, and you know what will have happened by then."

"I know," Ronda sighed, the aggression finally leaving her. "I can't wait, I really can't."

"Neither can I," Seth grinned. "Only twenty four hours to go."

Ahead of them and those sitting around them was not only the biggest wrestling event of the year, but possibly the biggest ever. Ahead of them was Wrestlemania thirty one.


	12. Chapter 12

_**Sunday March 29th 2015**_

The final Axxess session of Wrestlemania week is held on the morning of the event. Being one of the VIP's signing at the Sunday session was hardly ideal preparation for Seth, but he had no say in the matter. While there were some on the roster who viewed Axxess as some kind of chore that they were forced to go through, Seth did not look at it that way. He enjoyed meeting the fans and always made sure to be pleasant with all of them.

"Don't even think about cashing that briefcase in and costing Roman the title," the latest of his visitors ordered him. She was a very attractive woman with dark skin and long black hair, wearing a Roman Reigns t-shirt. Laura, she had said her name was.

Obviously he could not give away any kind of spoiler as to what would happen later at Wrestlemania so he laughed and told her, "No promises." The woman gave a little laugh of her own, then posed for a picture with him. "Good to meet you," Seth said pleasantly as she departed with a smile. He turned to greet his next visitor and he was blown away.

"Hey, Seth," the young woman beamed as she walked slowly over to the table, after being helped up the two small steps by the member of staff who was handling security at Seth's stage.

"Maggie," Seth exclaimed, standing and walking around the table with a huge smile on his face. When she reached him, he hugged her.

"Notice something different?" Maggie asked, grinning and hugging him back tightly.

"Yeah, I noticed," Seth laughed after releasing her. "Wow. When did you, uh, when did this happen?" The sight of Maggie walking made him feel happy in a way that he could not really explain. He had only met Maggie briefly at a restaurant, but her heart-wrenching story of losing both her mother and her legs had really moved him. Seeing how happy she had been to be sitting front row at the Royal Rumble thanks to the tickets that he had organised for her and her father had reminded him what a difference someone lucky enough to be in his position could make to someone else's life.

"When did I get legs?" Maggie helped him out, giggling.

"Well, yeah," Seth smiled.

"Dad managed to raise enough money," Maggie announced proudly. "It took him more than a year, but he managed to raise it. The insurance we had screwed us over and wouldn't pay out, so he's been doing all kinds of things to raise money towards these legs, and the last one took off a bit. It brought in enough for the rest of what we needed for my legs, and also we were able to make this trip with it too. I'm so lucky, honestly, that people would donate money to help me. I'm still getting used to walking on these things. They hurt quite a bit sometimes, but it's still great to have them. I'm so pleased I was able to get them in time to come here and show you. That was what I wanted the most."

"I'm so pleased for you," Seth said genuinely, wondering how Maggie could possibly describe herself as lucky. It was beyond humbling. "Where is your dad?" he asked.

"We could only afford one VIP ticket. But we're both going to be at the show later. We're up in the top of the stadium, but I'll be there when you cash in and win the title."

"You should have gotten in touch," Seth sighed. "I could have sorted you out with something closer to the ring."

"I couldn't have done that," Maggie insisted, almost as if she found the idea preposterous.

"Sure you could," Seth told her. "Have you got your phone? Tweet me now and I'll follow you so that we can keep in touch in future."

"Really?" Maggie asked, her brown eyes widening in surprise as she took her phone out of the pocket of her jeans.

"Yeah," Seth nodded. "You're one of the most amazing and inspiring people I've ever met. After what you went through, you were just so... I don't know the word I want to use. Brave, I guess is what I'm trying to say. One day I'll face a tough time of some kind, and I hope that I can do it with half as much courage as you."

Looking down at her phone was the only way that Maggie could attempt to hide the tears that began to flow down her cheeks. "I tweeted you," she mumbled.

"Don't cry," Seth urged gently. "We need to take a picture and you don't want to do it like that, do you?" He was not aware that he was almost echoing his own words from the first time he had met Maggie. She was able to get herself under control and they posed for a picture together, both wearing the same black shirt with the yellow Seth Rollins logo and both smiling broadly. "Are you coming to Raw tomorrow?" Seth asked when this was done.

"Yeah, we had enough for that, too," Maggie grinned.

"How about coming backstage?" Seth asked.

"Really?" Maggie squeaked, her eyes widening once more.

"Really," Seth confirmed. "We can all invite people from time to time. We don't get complained at as long as it's not too often, and I'm long overdue, so I'll hook you up. I'll message you on Twitter, okay?"

"I don't know what to say apart from thank you," Maggie said quietly, covering her mouth with her hand. She was stunned by what she had just heard and she felt tears stinging her eyes once more.

"You don't have to say anything apart from thank you," Seth smiled. "I need to keep the line moving, but I'll be in touch, okay?"

"Thank you so much," Maggie repeated herself. "Say hi to Ronda for me?" she asked as she made to leave.

"I'll do that," Seth agreed. "Hey, you know what I call her now?"

"Huh?" Maggie asked, tilting her head slightly.

"Gattina," Seth smiled. "She loved your drawing, and the nickname kind of stuck. It's a nice one."

"My mom was Italian," Maggie mumbled, her expression becoming slightly vacant. "Good luck later," she smiled a second later, the painful moment pushed aside. "Cash that briefcase in. I want to see that title belt up close tomorrow."

* * *

A satisfied smile came to Hunter Helmsley's face as he watched the Wrestlemania main event from the production office backstage. He considered the first Wrestlemania that he had been personally responsible for to have been a huge success as he thought back over some of the highlights.

The crowd had been right into the action from the start, brought to life by the fact that Damien Mizdow had turned on The Miz and eliminated him from the Andre The Giant Memorial Battle Royal on the pre show.

The first match on the main card had been a ladder match for the Intercontinental title, which had been won by Dean Ambrose. Hunter knew that Vince and most of the WWE's fans had been expecting Daniel Bryan to win, and it was for that exact reason that it had not happened. Predictability was something that Hunter intended to avoid as much as possible from now on, and had instructed the guys in the creative department on this new edict. Less predictability, more title matches on Raw, more frequent title changes and generally better writing were all required from this point forward. Predictability was something that not be avoided at all times, however, and that had been the case with John Cena winning the United States title from Rusev. The fans had swallowed it quite well, probably because they knew that it meant a spell in the mid card for Cena.

A real highlight of the night had been a match between his wife Stephanie and AJ Lee, which Stephanie had won, even though she had supposedly be badly injured by AJ in the process; the reason that she would not be seen at Raw the following night.

Hunter's own match, Triple H against Sting, had also gone over well despite the fact that Triple H had emerged victorious. Again, this was largely due to the fact that all of smarks were certain that there was no way Sting was going to come to WWE at last and lose his first match. The appearances of DX and the NWO had added a lot to the match, and had made sure that the fans came away from it thinking about what great moments they had been, rather than the fact that Sting had lost.

Nikki Bella had retained her divas title in a one on one match with Paige, and The Undertaker had beaten Bray Wyatt in the match before the main event. A Wyatt victory had been considered, but after Undertaker losing the previous year, it was determined that he should be given another victory.

Now the main event was in progress, and Seth Rollins was about to get his Wrestlemania moment after losing to Randy Orton in the second match on the card.

* * *

Blood poured from Brock Lesnar's head as he staggered to his feet in the corner of the ring. He had accidentally busted himself open for real when Roman Reigns had ran him into the ring post and he had failed to block the impact with his hand. It was making the finish of the match look a lot better, even though the significant loss of blood was strictly not PG.

Brock had just taken three superman punches from Reigns. Even that had not been enough to keep him down on the canvas. As he stumbled out of the corner, Reigns ran in and caught him with a spear. The crowd were vehemently against Reigns, as they had been at the Royal Rumble, and they booed loudly at the prospect of seeing the outcome that they were so set against. Referee Mike Chioda counted the pin, but only got a two count, Lesnar's kick out drawing a cheer from the crowd.

Chioda had put on his black medical gloves, as was required when a superstar was bleeding, and chose to improve the injury as a way for the next part of the match to happen. As Lesnar struggled to his feet in the corner once more, Chioda made out to be checking if he was okay to continue. Reigns ran in, attempting to hit another spear, but Lesnar pulled Chioda in the way and he ate the spear instead.

Lesnar and Reigns got up simultaneously as Chioda rolled out of the ring to the floor. Reigns ran in to attempt a spear for the third time, but Lesnar caught him and Reigns ended up on his shoulders, in position for an F5. Lesnar hit his finishing move for the fourth time in the match, to a loud cheer from the fans.

"Both men are down, but who can capitalise?" Michael Cole asked.

The answer came when Seth Rollins' music hit, the crowd instantly erupting, despite the fact that Rollins was a heel character. For them, anything was better than the prospect of Reigns walking out with the title. In any case, it was proving hard to keep Seth heel as his sheer ability was causing fans to cheer for him despite the character he was playing.

"This is brilliant!" JBL yelled as Seth sprinted to the ring, Money in the Bank briefcase in hand. He slid under the bottom rope and looked at the two fallen men on the canvas, but then he realised that he had a big problem. He wanted to cash in his briefcase and join the title match, but there was no referee to take it from him, or to count any pin that he might make. "Rollins wants to cash in but there's no referee!" JBL protested.

Seth already had something in place for this eventuality. He began gesturing frantically towards the stage for someone to come down to the ring. "Rollins is calling for another referee to get out here," Cole announced. "This is insane! We're in the middle of the Wrestlemania main event here!"

When a referee did appear, running towards the ring, it was not one that the crowd expected, and they cheered loudly once more. "Wait!" Jerry Lawler cried. "That's Ronda Rousey. She doesn't work here any more... does she?"

"We haven't seen Rousey in months," JBL recalled, "But she has a referee shirt on, and now she's in the ring."

"Great," Cole whined as Ronda took the briefcase from Seth and headed for the corner of the ring to hand it to the timekeeper. "We've got Seth Rollins cashing in his Money in the Bank, and his girlfriend refereeing the match. This is really fair."

Lillian Garcia, having received instructions from Ronda, made her announcement. "Ladies and gentlemen, Seth Rollins is cashing in his Money in the Bank contract! This is now a triple threat match!"

The crowd cheered loudly as Seth lined himself up for a curb stomp on Lesnar. The champion made it to all fours and Seth ran in, nailing his finisher perfectly, but he made no attempt at a pin. This was Brock Lesnar he was dealing with, and he wanted to make absolutely sure of the victory. He lined himself up for yet another curb stomp.

When Seth ran in to deliver the move for the second time, Lesnar repeated the counter he had made on Reigns earlier, catching him in the air and getting him in position for an F5. Now having no clue what was happening, the crowd were going insane. Lesnar was poised to put an end to Seth's cash in attempt, but at that moment Reigns appeared as if from nowhere and hit a spear on Lesnar, sending both the champion and Seth crashing to the mat.

Now all three men were down, but of course Seth was much fresher than the other two, and was quickly back to his feet. Lesnar rolled out of the ring to the floor as Reigns struggled to get up. Noticing the perfect opportunity, Seth ran in and hit a curb stomp on his former ally, to another huge reaction from the crowd. Seth made the cover and almost everyone in the stadium joined in with Ronda's count. As she counted, Seth whispered in his brother's ear, "Thank you. I love you."

"One! Two! Three!"

Levi's stadium erupted as Seth's music played and he stood up, staggering back towards the ropes with his hands raised and a look of shock on his face. He was the new WWE Champion. Ronda grabbed the title from the timekeeper and hurried over to Seth to present it to him. With the belt handed over, they shared a brief hug, before deciding that a quick exit might be the best idea, before Lesnar or Reigns managed to get back up.

Moments later, they were standing on the stage with Ronda raising Seth's right hand in victory as he held the title aloft with his left. They both wore huge smiles as an incredible pyrotechnic display exploded all around the top if the stadium, and all around the stage itself. The explosions and whistling noises were almost deafening. Glancing to his left, Seth saw that half of the stadium was now clapping along to his music, quite an achievement in itself given the style of it. "This is crazy," he said quietly to Ronda, scarcely able to believe that this moment was happening, and that he was sharing it with his girlfriend. The thought made him turn to Ronda and kiss her.

"I love you," she told him after the kiss, a huge smile still on her face. "Congratulations, asshole," she giggled.

"I love you too," Seth smiled back, before turning to face the crowd once more and resuming his celebrations.

Back in the production office, Hunter watched this display and turned to his wife with a smile. "That's money right there, Steph. There's your new power couple." Stephanie looked a lot less impressed with the prospect than her husband did. "I've got to go meet them when they come backstage," Hunter announced, heading for the door.

* * *

When Seth and Ronda walked back through the curtain, Hunter was the first to greet them and offer Seth his congratulations, along with a hug. Next in line was Dean, who was standing nearby with his Intercontinental title over his shoulder. The two men just stared at each other for a moment before Dean began applauding his friend. Seth walked over and the two men grabbed hold of each other in a hug.

"I'm proud of you, man," Dean told him seriously.

"I'm proud of you too, you crazy bastard," Seth replied.

While this was going on, Hunter had approached Ronda and he had a simple message to deliver. "I know you're ready, Ronda. The guys in Florida have nothing but good things to say about you. From tomorrow, the two of you are my stars, do you hear me?"

"Yes," Ronda told him determinedly. "I won't let you down."

"I know. I can see it in your eyes. Go enjoy this with him, there aren't that many moments like this." With that, Hunter walked away, leaving Ronda to walk over to Seth and share another hug and a passionate kiss with him.

"Get a fucking room," Dean mumbled sarcastically from nearby, a grin on his face.

"Go find Renee, or go jerk one off," Seth laughed in reply.

"I want to see you wearing it," Ronda said to Seth, ignoring the banter. "I want to see the new champion."

"Later. Here's Brock," Seth gestured as the former champion walked through the curtain, handing his title to Ronda, who put it over her left shoulder. Seth walked over to Lesnar and the two men exchanged a handshake. Brock passed on his congratulations to Seth, followed by Paul Heyman, who did the same. Ronda knew what was coming next so she gave her man some space. The moment that he and Roman were about to exchange was going to be private, and rightly so. Dean stood beside her and rested his arm on her right shoulder, clearly thinking the same thing that she was.

Roman walked through the curtain and went straight over to Seth. The two men grabbed each other tightly into a hug and slapped each other on the back a few times as Seth felt a lump forming in his throat. "I love you, man. Thank you," he managed to get out, almost repeating his words from in the ring minutes before.

"No, thank you," Roman insisted. "Without you and Dean, I wouldn't have been out there in the main event at all. I loved it, and I couldn't be happier for you."

"One day I'll give you this moment back, I promise," Seth said. "Me and you at 'Mania, and you'll be the one to go over. I promise you that."

"Maybe next year," Roman smiled, releasing his brother from the hug. Dean was next to come over to Roman and exchange a hug with him, followed by Ronda.

While this was going on, Seth had noticed a crew member walking past with a phone in his hand. Seth called him over and asked him to take a picture. "Let's get a picture," he urged his group of friends. Ronda handed his newly acquired title belt back to him, and the four of them quickly assembled in line, with Seth and Ronda in the centre, Seth now wearing his belt for the first time. Roman stood the other side of Seth, with his arm around the smaller man's shoulders, and Dean stood beside Ronda with an arm around her shoulders. All four of them smiled and the phone's camera flashed. The moment was immortalised forever. All four of the family members felt like the happiest people on Earth.

And this was only the beginning.


	13. Chapter 13

There had been little time for celebration for Seth after his victory because he was required to be in New York for a TV appearance first thing on Monday morning. WWE had fixed him up with a private jet for both legs of the journey, which was at least something to take some of the sting out of the huge inconvenience and the many hours of travel. The reality was that he had wanted to do nothing other than enjoy getting very drunk with his girlfriend, his two brothers and the rest of his colleagues at the annual post Wrestlemania party. Being WWE champion brought a new set of responsibilities, however, so that would not be happening. His face was now _the _face which represented WWE to the world.

At least there was one thing to take his mind off of the party he was missing: Ronda was travelling with him. He looked up as she returned to her seat beside him in the private jet's cabin. She had brought two glasses of champagne with her, and she handed one to him with a smile. He could never help himself being struck by how beautiful that smile was. It seemed to be made even more so in a way by the fact that it did not happen terribly often. Ronda was a very serious person in all aspects of life, but Seth felt that over the two months they had been together, he was starting to have an effect on her, helping that side of her personality to change ever so slightly.

"There's a bottle of this back there. We're going to drink it all," Ronda had said to accompany the smile. "I love you, and I'm so proud of you. No one deserves to be WWE champion more than you do. Congratulations," she concluded, raising her glass slightly to toast him.

"Thank you, Gattina," Seth smiled back, even though he was thinking that maybe Roman deserved the title more than he did. The whole thing with how his close friend was being treated by the fans was a travesty. Nonetheless, he was the champion and Roman was pleased for him, so he was damn sure going to enjoy it, however long it lasted. With that in mind, he raised his glass and savoured the taste of the champagne as he drank.

They chatted away for several minutes as they consumed their drinks before setting the empty glasses aside for the stewardess to refill. Ronda yawned as she set her glass down and it made Seth join her in that strangely infectious way that yawns seemed to spread. She leaned over towards him and he put an arm around her, holding her against him as she rested her head on his shoulder. A little purr of satisfaction came from her as Seth looked over at his WWE title belt which sat on the seat opposite him.

The sight sent his mind drifting back to a conversation he had once had with Chris Jericho backstage at a Raw event in whatever city it had been, he could not remember. What he could remember was Jericho saying that he thought Seth would be WWE champion one day and then moving on to share amusing stories about when he had been champion himself and had to take the title belt through airport security, facing a lot of questions and a lot of idiotic security personnel who insisted on trying it on and taking photos with it, despite the delay they were causing in doing so. Even with this inconvenience, which could be considerable at times, Jericho had been very clear on one thing, which was to never let WWE transport the belt around for you - an option that was available. No, Jericho had told him to always keep it with him and to be proud of having it. Not many people could say that they were the top man in the business they worked in, but right now, Seth could say exactly that. He was the WWE champion. It was still yet to properly sink in.

"A refill, sir?" the stewardess whispered, bringing him out of his thoughts.

As he turned his head to look at the young woman, he noticed that Ronda had quickly fallen asleep with her head resting on him. It had been a very long day, and he felt tired himself. "No, thank you," he whispered back. As the stewardess walked away, he rested his own head lightly against Ronda's. Within moments, he was asleep as well.

* * *

The next morning, the atmosphere in the cabin on the return journey had been a lot different. A good night's sleep had revitalised Seth and Ronda, and they had both been hyped to get back to San Jose and Raw to find out what the plan was for the show. They had been told that they were expected to be two of the biggest stars on the show from this point forward, but nothing specific had been mentioned as yet. Not only was it going to be Seth's first appearance as champion, it was also going to be Ronda's debut as a wrestler. There were also big plans for Roman and Dean, which both Seth and Ronda knew about as they had been present when the idea was pitched to the two men. Every year the night after Wrestlemania brought big changes to WWE, and this year would certainly be no exception.

When they arrived at the arena, they were requested to go immediately to the production office. Briefly, they stopped off at what for the first time was their own shared locker room. For Seth, the fact that he was no longer sharing with Roman and Dean for the first time since debuting on the main roster felt very strange.

"Excited?" Seth asked Ronda with a broad smile as they approached the production office.

"Yeah, and nervous," she replied. "There's only so much that training can do for you. I've got to deliver out there now. I've not learned that much offence yet, either. I don't think I can put on a very long match, but Hunter was insistent that I debut tonight. I guess I should be honoured by the fact he wants to throw me right in at the deep end, but it's a lot of pressure."

"You'll be fine," Seth assured her. "In fact you'll be great, and you're debuting in front of the best crowd of the year. We get all the Brits in the night after Wrestlemania. They're real hardcore fans, and they're kind of crazy. You'll love the atmosphere out there." With that, he gave her a quick kiss and gestured to the office door. "After you."

When they walked inside, they saw that not only was Hunter waiting for them, Vince and Stephanie McMahon were also in attendance. Hunter and Vince both greeted Seth first, passing on congratulations once more on becoming champion. Stephanie just sat nearby, seemingly not wishing to be a part of the upcoming conversation. Ronda glanced over and noticed Stephanie scowling back at her. Whatever Stephanie's problem was, it was starting to get under Ronda's skin big time. Her attention was brought back to Hunter as he greeted her.

With the pleasantries out of the way, Hunter began the meeting by talking Seth through who he was going to be feuding with on his first run as champion. Seth liked the plan and agreed to it without suggesting any changes. Next, the discussion moved on to the opening segment for the night's show, which would involve both Seth and Ronda. They both agreed to this plan also, particularly Ronda, who was surprised by what her involvement was to be. Talk about making an impact, she thought.

"That brings us on to you, Ronda," Vince said, joining the discussion for the first time. "Now, as you know, there is a lot of backing behind this 'give Divas a chance' movement, and we're on board with it. We'd be stupid not to be at this point. So, you're going to be the driving force to take this forward for us. We know from the guys in Orlando that you've not learned a great amount of offence yet, but we know that you can put in a good performance, given what we want you to do. This armbar thing you've got is all well and good, but we have plenty of people with submission finishing moves already. I want you to have a finish that can beat people by three count instead, so what you're going to use is the Clothesline from Hell. You're the biggest, strongest woman we have right now, and you're going to use that to your advantage with this move. You can make it look very impressive, I'm sure, and you'll start in that opening segment we just discussed. You'll throw that damn clothesline as hard as you can, and make it look good."

Ronda noticed that nothing that had just been said had been a question, so it was lucky in a way that she liked the idea of having a powerful clothesline for a finish. She knew that if she used the armbar primarily then people would have to escape from it at times to make matches more exciting, which was kind of stupid because the reality was that if she got the armbar on someone in a real, unscripted contest, it would be over in seconds. "Okay, I like that," she said. "I can't promise that whoever I wrestle won't get hurt though, because I'll sure hit them hard if I give it all I've got."

"Good," Vince grinned. "That's what I want you to do. Everyone's been hit hard before, trust me."

It surprised Ronda that it was Stephanie who spoke next, standing up and walking slowly over as she did so, and delivering news which surprised Ronda even more. "So, AJ quit last night. She's retired. Ironic that she tried to make me look bad on Twitter over this 'give Divas a chance' thing and then quit when we're actually doing it. She must spend too much time listening to her idiot husband, I guess. Either that or she's angry about people being pushed too quickly without deserving it." The barb was obviously directed at Ronda.

"Steph," Hunter warned gently.

Ronda finally realised what Stephanie's problem was. She did not like the fact that she had been on the Raw roster so quickly, without going through NXT first. "Well fuck you, Steph," Ronda thought. "You don't get a say in the matter, do you?" Stephanie now stood close to Ronda as though she expected her presence to be intimidating. It was not, not to Ronda.

Hunter continued, trying to get the meeting back on track. "So, with AJ gone, we've had to change our plans somewhat. Paige is also due time off for filming, so we're going to be short of talent at the worst time in the Divas division, even with you on board Ronda. For that reason, in the very near future we are going to bring through three or four of our best talents from NXT, and they are going to be in a storyline with you. Before that happens, we need to put the title on you, so you're going to beat Nikki tonight."

Ronda's mouth dropped open slightly as Seth turned and smiled at her proudly, a little surprised himself. "I'm going to be the champion?" she asked, regretting it and feeling stupid even as she said it.

"Yes," Hunter smiled. "I told you last night that you guys are the stars now, and I meant it. You're going to be given proper storylines, and you're going to get time on the mic the same as the guys do. We mean it when we say we're giving Divas a chance, but it's up to you to make sure it comes off, okay? If the fans don't get on-board, we'll have to revisit the whole thing. But as they're the ones asking for it, I don't see it being a problem."

It was obvious to Ronda that she was deliberately being put under pressure, but she was fine with that. Pressure was something that she thrived under, not something she was afraid of. She had no experience of talking in front of a crowd, but she would give it her best shot when given the chance. It would be one of those things that needed to be learned as she went along. "Thank you guys," she said. "I'll prove to you that you're right to back me," she said, addressing Hunter and Vince. "Or wrong not to," she added coldly, looking Stephanie in the eyes, pleasingly seeing a hint of anger in them.

The meeting was wrapped up a couple of minutes later, and Seth and Ronda left the office. "That fucking woman," Stephanie growled viciously. "I don't know who she thinks she is. I was tempted to slap that stupid mole off her face."

"I don't think that would be a good idea," Hunter grinned as Vince chuckled.

"He's right, just calm down," the older man urged his daughter. "I know you think she played us, but we don't, so drop it."

Stephanie said nothing more, but she had no intention of dropping her issue with Ronda, especially now that she was being given the Divas title too. It was too much to bear, and her husband attempting to make a joke out of her anger made it even worse.

* * *

"I spoke to Nikki and Brie," Ronda announced to Seth as she walked back into their locker room a little later in the afternoon. "We fixed up the match. Luckily, they're both fine with me. They said we've been friends since I started here, and that's not going to change now because Hunter decided to put the title on me right away. After all, it's not like I asked for it. Nikki told me that as she's got to lose, she wants it to look good. She wants me to hit her as hard as I can with my clothesline."

"Rather her than me," Seth joked as he pulled on his trademark black t-shirt with the yellow SR logo.

"Asshole," Ronda grinned before walking over and kissing him. "When do the people with backstage passes come in?" she asked next. "I'm looking forward to seeing Maggie. I'm so pleased that they managed to raise enough money for her legs. She's such an amazing girl, isn't she?"

"She is," Seth agreed. "You know, I was thinking about her earlier. I know they're going to want to come up with a new t-shirt for me soon. I might have Maggie design it for me. Some of those drawings you showed me on her Instagram were incredible."

"You can have someone design your merchandise for you?" Ronda asked, surprised that WWE didn't insist on doing it themselves.

"Yeah. Obviously you have to get it approved before they'll use it, but yeah, you can have your own designs done. Hey, you could get her to do one for you too. If she wants to, obviously."

"I'll think about what I'd like," Ronda said, her mind already going to work on exactly that.

"Let's go, they'll probably be backstage already," Seth said as he picked up his title belt and put it over his shoulder. Out in the hallway, they linked arms and Seth smiled as he said, "Think about this time tomorrow. We'll both be champions."

Ronda smiled as they walked, but did not say anything. She knew that she had not earned a run as Divas champion and that she was lucky that Nikki Bella had not taken the order to drop to her the wrong way, which would likely have also ended their friendship. However, she also knew that she had to get the attitude of not deserving the title out of her head because she needed to act like a champion, both inside and outside of the ring.

After asking a couple of crew members where the fans who had backstage passes were, they found them down at ringside. Maggie and Martin, her father, were part of the group of eight fans. Wade Barrett and Kane were there, showing them around ringside and the commentary position. Barrett and Maggie were separated slightly from the rest of the group. As Seth and Ronda approached, Maggie was laughing at something that Barrett had just said.

"Someone's happy," Seth smiled. Both he and Ronda knew that unlike the character he played, Barrett was a nice guy who liked to make time for the fans.

"She will be when she sees you," Ronda said, hanging back a little so that Seth could approach Maggie first.

As Seth walked over, Maggie had her back to him. She was wearing jeans along with yet another shirt matching the one that Seth had on himself. It was the only thing he had ever seen Maggie wearing. "Here's your man now," he heard Barrett say to Maggie.

The other fans noticed the presence of Seth and Ronda at the same time. They all hurried over to talk to him. "Give me a minute, guys," he asked. "I'll chat with you all, but give me a minute with Maggie here first, okay? She's a personal friend of mine." The fans were happy to fulfill his request, and in any case Ronda stepped in, attracting their attention, especially the guys.

"Hey," Maggie greeted Seth, beaming like a Cheshire cat. "It's the champ," she added. They exchanged a hug and although they had only met a handful of times it had a slightly different feel to that of a hug between a wrestler and a fan. It was closer to a hug that might be shared between friends, or even by an uncle and a niece.

"You enjoy the show last night?" Seth asked, releasing the hug.

"Come on, you know I did," Maggie laughed. "I knew you were cashing in. It was so great. I lost my voice from screaming, and Ronda came back too. Please tell me she's going to wrestle? That would be epic. And you just said we're friends," she babbled.

"You know I can't say anything on things like that," Seth reminded her. "And we are friends."

"You can't say, but I can see it in your eyes. You're no good at hiding things, Seth. Ronda's going to wrestle. Oh my."

Rather than answer her, Seth diverted the conversation by asking Ronda to come over and join them. She finished posing for a picture with one of the fans, then walked over. She greeted Maggie with a smile. "Hey Maggie, great to see you again. I'm really pleased for you that you, uh..."

"Have legs?" Maggie helped out.

"Yeah," Ronda smiled. Seth made his excuses and walked over to speak to Martin and the other fans as he had promised, leaving Ronda to face any awkward questions from Maggie but Maggie had realised that she had let her excitement get the better of her and was not going to repeat the error. In any case Ronda spoke first. "Maggie, we were talking about you earlier and your amazing artwork. We're likely to need new merchandise designing soon and we'd like you to do it for us. If you're interested of course."

"You want me to design you a shirt?" Maggie asked, eyes widening.

"Yeah, I don't know what I want on it yet but I'll let you know. Seth will be needing a new one too."

"I'd love to," Maggie beamed. "It's always been something I've wanted to do."

Seth and Ronda spent another few minutes talking with the fans, including Maggie and her father, before making their excuses and heading for the back. Seth had gotten Maggie to send him her phone number in a private message on Twitter so that he could contact her when the ideas for the new shirts were finalised. He had explained that WWE would not pay her anything for her work, but he would make sure she got paid for her time personally, would shout her out on Twitter and Instagram too. Maggie had been overjoyed at the opportunity, saying that she would gladly do it for free and repeating that this was the kind of thing that she had always wanted to do.

As Seth and Ronda made their way up the entrance ramp towards the back, Maggie had no idea that Seth was saying almost the same thing to Ronda that she was saying to her father. "Maybe if I do a good enough job with this for Seth and Ronda, WWE will give me more work doing it? You never know."

"If Maggie comes up with something really good for us, maybe I could speak with Hunter and see if they can give her a job in whatever department designing merch would fall into?" Seth was suggesting to Ronda at exactly the same time.

"Good idea," Ronda agreed. They reached the stage and she paused to look around the arena that would shortly begin filling up with fans. "Next time we walk up this ramp, it's going to be so crazy," she said, shaking her head slightly at the thought of the reaction that Raw's opening segment would get. "I can't believe Hunter is going to put me over like that."

"Start believing it, because it's going to happen real soon," Seth smiled. "Let's go find Roman and Dean, we have a bit of spare time to spend with them." With that, they disappeared through the curtain. The wildest Raw of the year would be starting in an hour.


	14. Chapter 14

_**Monday Night Raw 30th March 2015**_

The raucous, predominantly British crowd were all over Triple H as he opened the show, spending the first few minutes in the ring alone as Stephanie had a storyline injury and was supposedly back home recovering. He spent the time blowing his own horn about his victory over Sting at Wrestlemania, then labouring the point once more about how he was the one to engineer Seth Rollins breaking up The Shield. On and on he went about how The Authority had hand picked Seth Rollins as the future of the WWE and had seen him as the champion. A rather loud chant of "Boring" did not even stop him from droning on. Eventually, the time came for the new champion to be introduced. "Allow me to introduce to you, the face of The Authority, the face of WWE, the new WWE World Heavyweight Champion... Seth Rollins!"

Seth's theme music began to play, to a mixed reaction of boos and cheers. The new champion walked out onto the stage wearing his usual leather pants and black t-shirt with the yellow SR logo, with his newly acquired title belt over his shoulder. Ronda walked beside him, wearing jeans and a dark grey Wrestlemania 31 t-shirt. They exchanged a kiss on the stage, then walked to the ring with smiles on their faces. Seth's music stopped when they entered the ring, and the crowd booed as he shared a hug with Triple H.

Next, Triple H approached Ronda and gave her a peck on the cheek and a smile. "Ronda Rousey, ladies and gentlemen," he introduced, as if he was a little surprised by her presence in the ring, but pleasantly so. A suspiciously male sounding cheer was the response to her name from the crowd.

While this was happening, Seth had taken a microphone for himself and stood near to the ropes on the commentary table side of the ring, ready to speak. The crowd booed to fill the silence, but there was no real viciousness to it. Seth was already becoming too popular for that. After a moment, he smiled and shook his head. "I really don't know what to say," he began, addressing Triple H. "I'm the WWE champion. I can't even tell you what I owe you for this." Still acting over awed, Seth widened his arms and offered another hug to Triple H.

The crowd booed the rather sickening show of affection more loudly as Triple H walked over and exchanged another hug with his protégé. "I'm proud of you," the boss could be heard saying to Seth, even though he was not using his microphone. No one in the crowd seemed to have noticed Ronda shift her position slightly on the other side of the ring so that she was directly behind Triple H.

Seth broke off the hug and Triple H turned around. At exactly the same time Ronda sprinted across the ring and literally flung herself through the air, throwing her new finishing move as hard as she could. There was no chance for Triple H to react and avoid the clothesline that was coming his way because he never even saw it coming. Ronda's arm made an audible crack as it impacted with the upper part of Triple H's chest.

The crowd exploded joyfully at the fact that Seth and his girlfriend appeared to be turning on The Authority, but Seth and Ronda wasted no time in enjoying the reaction they were getting. Seth went to work pounding on the fallen Triple H with right hands as Ronda bailed from the ring and quickly grabbed a chair from the ring announcer's position. She rolled back into the ring with it and gestured for Seth to pick Triple H up. The crowd were now going wild and Ronda encouraged them to take it up another notch with a small hand gesture before taking her position ready to strike with the chair.

The noise from the crowd rose in the same way that it did when Daniel Bryan was lining up his trademark kicks to his kneeling opponent's chest. Seth hauled Triple H to his feet and held his almost lifeless form in position for Ronda to swing at with the chair. The crowd's response rose to almost deafening levels and then Ronda swung, catching Triple H flush in the head with the chair, which was a rare thing in the modern era. "Boom!" Most of the crowd took immense pleasure in yelling as the chair shot connected and Triple H crumbled to the floor.

Ronda handed the now slightly bent chair to Seth and then jumped out of the ring. She grabbed another chair from the ring announcer's position as Seth placed Triple H's ankle into the partially open first chair. A "Yes!" chant began to erupt as the crowd figured out what was coming next. Seth was going to put Triple H out of action by breaking his ankle. After getting back in the ring, Ronda handed over the second chair to her boyfriend. "Do it," she said, smiling cruelly.

Seth raised the chair high over his head, and without hesitating, slammed it down onto the other chair and Triple H's ankle. The boss had seemed to be almost unconscious until the impact, but now he began screaming in agony and rolling around the ring, holding his ankle. While this was happening, Ronda had been given a microphone and she was ready to say something, but she had to wait as the crowd were going insane. The cheering was like nothing she had ever experienced in person before, and she felt goose bumps rising on her arms. Involuntarily, a smile broke out on her face. Seth picked up his title belt from where it had fallen to the canvas and walked over to stand next to her as the cheering changed gradually to a chant of, "Ronda Rousey!"

"I think they like you," Seth whispered to her.

"This is crazy," she whispered back, careful not to let the microphone she was holding pick up her words. It was time for her to deliver her first line as a wrestler. "If you wanted The Authority taken out, all you had to do was ask us."

"Seth Rollins and Ronda Rousey have taken out Triple H!" Michael Cole yelled as the crowd cheered yet again. "Stephanie McMahon is injured back home, and now Triple H may have a broken ankle. The Authority are gone!"

"This is disgusting!" JBL protested. "Triple H gave Rollins everything, and this is what he gets for it? And Ronda Rousey is a... Is a... She's a referee, damn it! What was she even doing in the ring to start with, let alone assaulting the boss? She should be fired right now!"

"Who's going to fire her?" Booker T asked. "Don't look like Triple H is going to do it, to me."

During this exchange, Seth and Ronda had left the ring and were heading up the ramp towards the stage as paramedics ran in the opposite direction to come to the aid of Triple H, who was still writing around, holding his supposedly destroyed ankle. Seth and Ronda were shown laughing as they walked through the curtain to the back, then the paramedics were shown for a few moments as the began to attend to Triple H, before the show went to commercial.

* * *

After the break, Seth and Ronda were shown talking as they walked along a hallway backstage.

"What these two just did is reprehensible," JBL complained, but then everyone's attention was diverted to someone who was walking in the opposite direction along the hallway. The camera began to track this person instead.

"There's Paul Heyman," Cole said. "From what I hear, his client, Brock Lesnar, is not here tonight after losing the WWE title last night at Wrestlemania. No one has seen Lesnar since, but is Heyman coming out here?"

Heyman was not coming out to the ring. The camera followed him along the hallway until he stopped in front of a door, straightened his suit jacket and then walked in without knocking. The door closed behind him as Booker T asked, "Whose locker room is that? What is Heyman doing?"

The cameraman reached the closed door and the name on it was revealed in the shot. Roman Reigns. The crowd could be heard booing in the arena as they watched on the big screen.

* * *

Later in the night, Nikki Bella came to the ring with her Diva's title, fresh from her victory over Paige at Wrestlemania. As usual, her sister Brie accompanied her. They got in the ring and Nikki took a microphone from Lillian Garcia, who was in the ring, seemingly ready to introduce a match.

"Let me save you the trouble," Nikki told Lillian. "There won't be a match for the Diva's title tonight. And do you know why? Because I've already beaten everyone, that's why. Last night I beat Paige so badly that no one knows when she will be back, if ever. I've done it all. There's no one in WWE who can beat me. So for that reason..." She stopped herself and seemed to think for a moment.

"Actually," she began again, "I've changed my mind. Why don't we just go round again? I've beaten them all before, so I'll just do it again. Come on, whoever is in charge back there, throw someone at me. I don't care who it is, just get someone out here." With that, she tossed the microphone back to Lillian and turned to Brie, sharing a joke with her sister. After several moments no one's entrance music had played, so Nikki opened her arms out wide. "Come on," she yelled impatiently.

Some of the crowd began to chant "Ronda!" They were sensing where this might be going, but still nothing happened. However, just when it began to appear that no one was going to accept Nikki's open challenge of sorts, Seth's entrance music and video began to play and the crowd exploded, knowing that it had to mean Ronda was coming out. The music played for almost twenty seconds and the cheering died away, but then Ronda walked slowly out onto the stage, wearing black shorts and a black sports bra. The crowd erupted once more.

"Oh my God," JBL mumbled, stretching out the first word.

"Ronda Rousey," Cole announced. "She's a black belt in judo and an Olympic bronze medalist."

Ronda walked slowly down the entrance ramp as Nikki was shown looking a lot less sure of herself, speaking to referee Charles Robinson, who was ready to call the match.

"Ronda's a referee," Booker T reminded everyone. "Referee's can't just come out here and wrestle if they feel like it, back belt in judo or not. I don't think this thing is going to happen, guys."

Ronda got in the ring and her entrance music stopped. She stood across the ring from Nikki, staring at her fiercely. Nikki resumed her conversation with the referee, then took Lillian's microphone once more. "You're not a wrestler Ronda," she explained in a very patronising tone. "I mean, well done. You came out here and got yourself a nice cheer, and that's great, but you're not on the roster. That means you can't wrestle. Why don't you get out of here and leave this to those of us who know how to do it? You're just a little referee, sweetheart, you don't want to get hurt."

"Did Nikki miss the start of the show?" Cole asked. "After the way she hit Triple H with that clothesline, I wouldn't say Ronda was a 'little' anything if I was Nikki."

Unsure what to do, referee Charles Robinson climbed out of the ring and walked over to the timekeeper's area.

"It looks like the referee wants to know if Ronda is eligible to compete," Cole guessed. The timekeeper spoke to someone on a portable radio and there was a brief exchange with the referee, who then headed back into the ring. The crowd began enthusiastically chanting Ronda's name at Nikki who played up to it by trying to make them shut up so that she could speak to the referee.

"Have we got a match or not?" Booker T demanded. Robinson passed on the verdict to Nikki, who gulped and looked over at Ronda, who now allowed herself to smile as she began to loosen up her right shoulder, the clear message being that she was getting a big clothesline ready for Nikki. She threw an imaginary clothesline and then pointed at Nikki. Nikki reluctantly handed over her title belt to Brie, who left the ring as the referee ordered for the bell to be rung.

"Alright, we have a match," Cole confirmed enthusiastically. "The Diva's title is on the line, Nikki Bella against Ronda Rousey."

Now that she was in the match, Nikki decided to change her attitude and walked over to Ronda, getting in her face. "This is my ring!" She could be heard yelling. "It's my ring, and you don't belong in it!" With that she slapped Ronda in the face, hard. Ronda just smiled, so Nikki started throwing right hands, taking Ronda by surprise and causing her to back into the corner. With Ronda seemingly stunned, the referee ordered Nikki to back up out of the corner. As she did so, Nikki raised her arm to the crowd, pretending to celebrate a victory already.

With the crowd booing her, Nikki grabbed Ronda's arm and whipped her across the ring, into the opposite corner. Ronda crashed in the corner and Nikki sprinted after her, intending to run right into her, but before Nikki could make contact, Ronda ran off to the side, causing Nikki to miss her and crash full force into the turnbuckles instead. Ronda had bounced off the ropes, and by the time Nikki turned around, holding her chest in pain, Ronda was already coming at her at full speed. As they had earlier with the chair shot that Ronda had delivered, the crowd joined in with the huge impact of the clothesline connecting with Nikki, shouting, "Boom!"

Nikki almost did a full backflip, crashing to the mat on her head and right shoulder before falling limply onto her back. "Count to twenty," JBL advised the referee.

Ronda made the cover and the crowd joined in with the count, like the forgone conclusion that it was. "One! Two! Three!"

"We've got a new Diva's Champion!" Cole announced as Seth and Ronda's music began to play again. "Ronda Rousey is the Diva's Champion! She just beat Nikki Bella in thirty seconds, and she might have killed her in the process."

"I don't think she killed her," Booker T laughed. "But I definitely think she knocked her out."

In the ring, Ronda was having her hand raised by the referee as the crowd cheered. She was handed the title belt, and looked at it proudly before raising it in the air in celebration.

"I might not like it," JBL said, "but Seth Rollins and Ronda Rousey took out The Authority tonight, and now they're both champions. I don't think we have to look far for our new power couple."

* * *

Following the commercial break, Dean Ambrose was shown backstage, walking along a hallway with his Intercontinental title belt over his shoulder. He entered the door that had already been seen once earlier in the night, the door bearing the name Roman Reigns.

* * *

As some kind of punishment for his actions at the start of the show, Seth had been put into the main event against Bray Wyatt by Kane, who had been left to take charge of Raw, with The Authority gone. The crowd were now fully behind Seth, so they cheered loudly as he managed to hit Wyatt with a curb stomp and counted along with the easy three count, ending the match in just under ten minutes.

Ronda had been watching the match from the outside of the ring, with her Diva's title belt over her shoulder. When Seth won the match and their theme music played, she climbed into the ring and they hugged. Seth was handed his title belt by the referee and he held it up high in his left hand and Ronda held hers up in her right. Their other arms were wrapped around each other's waists as they celebrated. Cole chirped on about how there was a new power couple in WWE, making it appear that the show was about to end. But the music cut off abruptly.

"Ladies and gentlemen." The voice was very familiar, and so was the person who walked out onto the stage a moment later. "My name is Paul Heyman," he confirmed as the crowd joined in. Paul started heading for the ring. "Seth Rollins, you're out here calling yourself the WWE World Heavyweight Champion. The way I recall the Wrestlemania main event is that there were two men who were supposed to be involved in it, with one of them emerging with the title. That's not what happened, is it?"

Seth and Ronda exchanged glances which seemed to ask 'What is this idiot doing out here?'

Heyman reached ringside, but stopped short of entering the ring itself. "What happened was that you, Seth Rollins, _stole_ the WWE World Heavyweight Championship by cashing in your Money in the Bank contract during a match that was still in progress." The crowd booed despite the fact that the statement was essentially true. Heyman continued, "I'm sick of how things are around here. If it's not title matches being ruined by people interfering, it's the so-called Authority abusing their power and using it to hold people back. If it's not either of those things, then it's these so-called fans thinking they can dictate who get's chances and who doesn't. Well, The Authority is gone, thanks to you, so I say, no more! Starting right now, no more of this crap... and my clients agree."

At that moment the music for The Shield hit, to an instinctive, thunderous cheer from the crowd.

"What?" Michael Cole yelled as Roman and Dean appeared on the stage. "What is this? Is it... Are they... Is this The Shield? Are they back together?"

"It sure looks like two of them are," Booker T said.

"I wouldn't want to be Seth Rollins right now," JBL chirped. "Might not have been such a good idea to stab Triple H in the back there, champ. Where's your backup now?"

The two members of what was now The Shield joined Heyman at ringside, standing either side of him as he continued, "Mr. Ambrose here has a title belt, which he won fair and square at Wrestlemania. Mr. Reigns here does not have a title belt because he was unfairly cheated out of it at Wrestlemania. So, what I have to say to you Seth Rollins, and indeed you, Ronda Rousey, is that either Mr. Reigns is granted a one on one rematch at Extreme Rules for the WWE World Heavyweight Championship right now, or you're going to wish that he had been."

Seth immediately headed over to get a microphone from Lillian Garcia, who passed it to him through the ropes. "You want a rematch, Roman? All you had to do was ask for one. I have no problem beating you again at Extreme Rules, but if you're going to come out here and make threats to Ronda, then things are going to get serious because not only am I going to kick your ass, but she probably will do as well." The crowd cheered loudly at the thought of seeing Seth and Ronda go up against Roman and Dean.

"So you agree to the match at Extreme Rules?" Heyman asked. "A one on one match for the WWE World Heavyweight Championship between Roman Reigns and Seth Rollins?"

"Is he deaf?" Seth asked Ronda, drawing a laugh from the crowd. "Yes, I agree to your match."

"Good," Heyman said before dropping his microphone to the floor. Simultaneously Roman and Dean jumped up on the apron. Seth walked forward and stood staring at the two men as they stared right back, only inches apart.

This went on for several moments with some of the crowd chanting "Let's go Rollins," and other's were replying with, "Let's go Shield."

Suddenly Paul Heyman seemed keen to avoid the confrontation getting physical. He signalled to his new clients and they dropped down from the apron to a chorus of boos from the crowd. They retreated up the ramp as Seth's music played yet again. Ronda walked forward to stand beside Seth in the ring.

Michael Cole hyped up the main event for Extreme Rules which had just been agreed upon and began to close the show with, "My God what a night. We've seen seen The Shield reform under Paul Heyman, and we've seen The Authority taken out by Seth Rollins and Ronda Rousey."

The shot changed from Heyman and The Shield to Seth and Ronda still standing in the ring with their belts over their shoulders. The threat from The Shield had passed for now, so they turned to each other and exchanged a kiss. Booker T had the last word as Raw went off the air, "There are the new faces of WWE."

END

* * *

_The next story in this series is titled Faces. You can find a link to it in the bio section of my profile page, along with a list of the other stories in the series._


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